Despite what I imagined when I sat down to watch this film, this is not a movie about the elusive street artist Banksy. The movie was made by Banksy.
In reality this is a film that shines a light on the corruptibility of his urban artform, the fickle nature of the world and the humanity of the man himself.
What you actually watch is a documentary about a bat-shit crazy french guy who spends his whole life looking through the lens of a video camera. He fumbles his way around recording street artists, befriending them and even helping them with their projects. Through coincidence, timing and luck this guy manages to get in contact with Banksy. Then, in a rare moment of (possibly) weakness, Banksy agrees to let the man follow him and record his activities. All goes well for a while, until the time comes for the french man to produce his documentary, and all he comes up with is a pile of garbage.
The film then takes a serious twist as the camera man begins to mimic the artists he has been filming. He quickly dubs himself as 'Mr Brainwash' and starts his own printing press to churn out prints, but it rapidly becomes clear that he seems to have missed the point of street art entirely.
The craziest part about it all is that this documentary shows how a person with zero experience, zero talent and a lot of crazy, can actually be wildly successful.
If Banksy's documentary did nothing else, it has shown the world that any piece of art by Mr Brainwash is not worth the paper it was mass printed on, and represents everything that street-art first aimed to destroy. I loved the part where a random person asks MBW "So i see this soup can recurring a lot in your work, what's the significance?" And all he can do is mumble. It's obvious he has no clue at all why he has made any of his hundreds of prints, aside from the fact that he will sell them for $10,000+ each, riding the publicity and leeching the fame of other credible artists.
Banksy sums it up when he says "Yes, I used to encourage anyone and everyone to do what I do... ... I don't do that anymore".
The star of the movie is also the brunt of all its jokes. But don't worry, it will whoosh right over his head.
To sum up, I would recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in where the street art phenomenon came from. There is some great footage of artists in their element and some interesting commentaries by different pioneers of the art. The whole Mr Brain Wash saga is worthy of a laugh but I feel like giving this guy any more publicity at all, even negative, might be a bad thing.
Seven out of Ten.
