Student Film Reviews

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1. William Barton 02.15.11 / 9pm

   One of my favorite lines in this film was ” I used to encourage everyone to do art. Do something meaningful and take pride in their work. I don’t really do that anymore.” -Banksy. In context, this quote was hilarious because Thierry was a pretty ludicrous man. But Thierry’s rise to fame was in itself a work of art. He was sort of a talentless man in the ways of art, but he had so much self confidence and commanded the space around him that he ended up being a popular artist anyway. To me, that’s one of the funniest things about art and about life. The fact that some people really try hard at what they do and it takes them years to develop a style and then some people just kind of pull stuff out of their ass and they find the same popularity. I mean, I’m not pointing any fingers here, but I think we all remember the Ebonics speaking robots in Transformers 2. Work of art? Ass creation? Who’s to decide?
2. Nick Hincapie 02.15.11 / 10pm

   I have heard a lot about this film and I am very interested in seeing it now from what I read in your review. I expect this film gives a pretty good insight on Bansky’s life and his art. Judging by all the trailers and clips I’ve seen this looks like no documentary I’ve ever seen.
3. Luis Mendoza 03.06.11 / 5pm

   Being exposed to a variety of Banksy’s street art, this has been one of the films on my “To-Watch” list although I haven’t really prioritized it because I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. Given what is said in the review, I am actually filled with anticipation and I think I will probably watch the film tonight! I like to consider myself a documentary enthusiast and so I can only hope to gain some sort of new perspective from this film. Thanks for the review and keep up the good work!
4. William Duncan 03.10.11 / 11am

   This movie was hilarious. It made a complete mockery of popular art, and despite what little I know of Banksy I am confident this is his finest &%@! you to that establishment. Tierry Guetta had very little talent himself, and basically just delegated most of his works to a warehouse of other people. It just goes to show you how far brand consciousness and arbitrary icons of power go towards establishing fame. Banksy illustrates in this film that fame and notoriety can be so easily orchestrated that they are in no shape or form true indicators of artistic vision or talent. He pulls a mirror up to the face of every artist and asks, are you in this for the right reasons?
5. Kiran Aulakh 03.18.11 / 5pm

   This film started great, continued to be great, and then just lost its greatness (in my opinion of course) as it neared the end. I was in it for the documentation of street art, for the almost legendary status Banksy holds in the graffiti world, and maybe even for the eccentric little French cameraman. But that’s the direction I wanted to see to the end with this film. I didn’t appreciate the full coverage of MBW’s commercial and talentless take on street art. It is difficult to judge the documentary on its content since that’s clearly what was meant to be documented, but I found that the mix of content didn’t pinnacle with MBW’s story, so his should have taken up less of the lens. It was, however, well made. I reccomend to anyone that liked this film that they watch Beautiful Losers. A bunch of artists in New York in the 90’s express their creativity, their friendship, their insecurites, and their talent and a very well made documentary tells their story.
6. Brandon Smith 03.18.11 / 8pm

   I loved this movie. I found Theirry to be complete fake. All his art was direct rip offs of Banksy and the other artists. He lie his way into the artists lives by telling then he was a documentary film maker that was putting a movie together about the underground world of street art. His real motive, through the whole movie, is based on his obsession of cinematography which is to exploit the artist out of there own habitat. The first movie Theirry put together was something out of the twilight zone. It was a chaos on film. I did however like the way Banksy put the movie together and tried his best to show Theirry in a positive light.
7. Jenna Cohen 03.20.11 / 3pm

   Exit Through the Gift Shop was one film that enlightened me on Graffiti artists and society’s influence on popular culture. I enjoyed this film from start to finish as it starts off and ends in a very spontaneous way. The film focuses not just on the life and ways of various famous graffiti artists, but a man who is obsessed with filming who eventually becomes a popular, and successful graffiti artist. This french man, Thierry, sets out to make a documentary film on grafitti artists like Banksy, but has no education or knowledge of producing a documentary film. When Thierry shows his potenetial film to the graffiti artist known as Banksy, the movie ultimately takes an alternative route as Banksy finds out he has no skill or clue how to make a documentary film and instead creates one that shows Thierry in his hectic, crazy world, the lives of various graffitti artits, society’s reaction to graffiti artists. This movie left me with several different notions on society and what popular culture is. I loved how real, raw, and un-manipulated the editing was in this film. The movie received many acknowledgements in the movie industry world and I am happy to have been one to see it and enjoy it.
8. June Sanregret 07.02.11 / 12pm

   I was surprised with how this movie transpired. When starting the film, I was ready to watch a film based entirely on Banksy and or Street Art in general. As it ends up, the film seems to be mostly focused on Thierry Guetta, a french man who is obsessed with filming. I enjoyed this film although I found it hard to watch Thierry basically make street art as a whole look like a joke. Here he is just a random guy who decides one day he wants to be a well known street artist. Surprisingly, in the end he makes big bucks off of generic, ambiguous pop art images hes mass produced. This completely diminishes what the point of creating art really is, expressing yourself. This film kind of leaves you questioning what good art really is.
9. Deok Kim 07.05.11 / 7pm

   This documentary was unlike any of the prior documentaries I have seen on topics ranging from near death experiences to modern marvels. The first trait about the documentary is the use of camera by a person who wouldn’t be considered a professional but the French man did a very nice job of documenting everything he could even in the face of possible arrest. Your review was a great overview of what takes place in the documentary and I have to say that after watching the documentary, I have a fresh view of street art and the images I see walking through Los Angeles are not just scribbles anymore.
10. Rachel SanFilippo 03.12.12 / 8pm

    This was one of my most favorite documentary films till this day. I watched this when it was playing at the UCSB theatre and had no idea what it was about-I had just enjoyed it by its naming of the film. When the lights dimmed low, I was intrigued with the art of Banksy, and the creation of Mr. Brain Wash. As Mr. Brain Wash became more and more destroyed by the obsession that over comes your mind body and soul of true street art I got to see how life really is through their eyes. This film truly provided with a sense of insight on how the passion comes and what can make it, and break it.
11. Stuart Madison 03.15.12 / 1pm

    I have to say, I enjoyed this movie more than most documentaries. I am actually not a fan of either Banksy or Shepard Fairey, but liking the subjects was not needed to enjoy this movie. This review was good and it included the important issue of what it takes to be an artist. When watching the film, I feel it was on purpose by the filmmakers that you ask yourself that question. That also leads me to ask another question: Is this in fact a real documentary, or a “mockumentary” so Banksy could show his view on art?
12. Calyn Guiney 03.27.12 / 12am

    This is one of my favorite documentaries and I think that more people should watch it. The film is a little different than I expected. I thought the film would be following Banksy and his life, however the film focuses more on Thierry. Thierry is a French born man who starts filming street art. He gets so involved that eventually he becomes a street artist himself. I find it kind of funny how all the artists allowed Thierry behind the scenes into their work to film them and then in the end Thierry takes bits and pieces of what he has learned from these artists and uses it to make his own art. One of my favorite scenes is when the Banksy discoveries how terrible Thierry is as a filmmaker. Even with all of his footage he can’t make a decent film. I think Banksy describes Thierry’s free ride to fame perfectly when he says “Most artists take years to develop their style, Thierry seemed to miss out on all those bits.” Overall I really liked this film and found it to be educational and funny.
13. KateMullen 04.28.13 / 1pm

    Overall, this is a really great documentary and probably my favorite. I love the style in which this documentary is shot. It follows the life of a street artist Banksy as he tries to make his name. This film is shot so creatively due to the editing of it all. The clips are well crafted together and the uses of some small special effects make this film really cool to watch. What I like most about this documentary is that it actually lets the viewer create their own opinion. The director simply shows us a reality and we are left to form our own opinion about the subject. Overall, I think the director did a very good job in making this documentary visually appealing and interesting for all audiences, even people who don’t have a specific interest in art.
14. ahvalencia 03.21.14 / 3pm

    I saw this film about 3 years ago. I’ve always been a fan of well done Graffiti but this opened my eyes to so much more. It was very interesting to see how these Graffiti artists pulled off their work. As we watch through clips of Theirry’s recordings it caught me completely off guard when he began taking all the Artist’s ideas and using them himself. I think it’s cool that Brain Wash was encouraged to start his own art work, but kid of a stab in the back towards the artist’s he was documenting. All together I thought this film was directed in a cool way by showing us a variety of visuals. I also loved how Banksy still keeps himself out of the public eye by changing his voice and not showing his face. I would recommend this film to any Documentary film lovers!

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