About two months ago I picked up a movie by famous British street artist, Banksy. If you don't know who Banksy is, or aren't interested in street art at all, then this film is straight up not for you. And to those who expected the movie to be a documentary about Banksy, then you will have to turn to the DVD extras for that. Thinking that is like thinking that Full Metal Jacket is a movie about Stanley Kubrick. Just because someone made the movie, doesn't mean it's about them. Though Banksy does appear throughout being interviewed about the star of the movie, Thierry Guetta, who is a self-proclaimed filmmaker who videotapes famous street artists, and later becomes one, sort of.
I don't want to get too into the story, because it's something you have to watch. A person's life story is best told by that person, not by a passer by. But I'll do my best to do this movie justice. Basically Thierry Guetta is an average French guy with a wife and two kids. He has an obsessive habit of carrying around a camera with him everywhere and filming literally everything he can see. It all stems from the fact that he lost his mother and didn't know until after she passed. So he wants to conserve everything in a video camera so that his family won't experience what happened to him, it will always be there for them in the tapes.
But that's not what the movie is about. I mean, you could make a movie just about that, but this goes into a much different direction. Thierry has a cousin, who goes by his street name of Space Invader, or just Invader. Invader is a street artist who makes small tiled mosaics shaped like arcade sprites and pastes them all over the streets. Invader is a key player in a new movement called street art, which is a hybrid form of Graffiti. You can read more about street art on the web if you wish to know more about it. Thierry likes the concept of putting your art out on the streets for the world to see instead of hiding them in an art gallery or museum, so he takes up filming Invader on his street escapades. Upon filming Invader, Thierry meets all kinds of street artists and begins taking up filming them as his new passion. He starts telling them that he will eventually make a documentary with the footage of them; oh and that he's no narc.
All of the big names, including Shepard Fairey of OBEY fame, can't escape from Thierry's filming. All, but one. Banksy, a world renowned British street artist; who is heavily secretive and reclusive seems to be completely out of reach for Thierry. However he later gets a hold of him, and becomes Banksy's right hand man. Banksy even allows Thierry to film his studio.
It goes much farther from there, but I don't want to spoil it for you. Let me just say that Thierry reinvents himself later on, in a way that isn't really that pleasing to me. But he seems pretty happy with himself behind his new persona as Mr. Brainwash.
The movie does a nice job of explaining all about street art and giving tons of showcases of Thierry's footage of all these artists. It gives you some history and throws you right into the action of the movement. It really got me interested and made me respect this new, hybrid form of graffiti.
The DVD itself has some nice features, as well as some cool swag jammed in the case.
There's two blank postcards with reprints of Banksy's paintings on them, as well as two stickers, and my personal favorite novelty item, Authentic 2D viewing glasses. Just put the on the glasses, pop in the disc, and stare out the window. Classic.
The DVD has the actual movie of course, but it also has some deleted scenes which aren't that interesting, and are better off deleted anyway. There's also a severely cut down version of Thierry's final movie, Life Remote Control, which is an editor's worst nightmare to look at. However the only real worth while bonus feature is a small documentary on the origins of Banksy. If you thought this movie was about Banksy, then this is the part of the DVD you were looking for.
Other than that, I found that the movie was a nice little documentary. Though the video image quality isn't very good on an SD screen. Luckily I have a DVD player with and HDMI cable hooked up to a 1080p TV for DVD upscaling to HD for viewing purposes. Really helps with lots of documentaries that have old videotape footage on them.
Definitely give this movie a buy sometime soon.
I don't want to get too into the story, because it's something you have to watch. A person's life story is best told by that person, not by a passer by. But I'll do my best to do this movie justice. Basically Thierry Guetta is an average French guy with a wife and two kids. He has an obsessive habit of carrying around a camera with him everywhere and filming literally everything he can see. It all stems from the fact that he lost his mother and didn't know until after she passed. So he wants to conserve everything in a video camera so that his family won't experience what happened to him, it will always be there for them in the tapes.
But that's not what the movie is about. I mean, you could make a movie just about that, but this goes into a much different direction. Thierry has a cousin, who goes by his street name of Space Invader, or just Invader. Invader is a street artist who makes small tiled mosaics shaped like arcade sprites and pastes them all over the streets. Invader is a key player in a new movement called street art, which is a hybrid form of Graffiti. You can read more about street art on the web if you wish to know more about it. Thierry likes the concept of putting your art out on the streets for the world to see instead of hiding them in an art gallery or museum, so he takes up filming Invader on his street escapades. Upon filming Invader, Thierry meets all kinds of street artists and begins taking up filming them as his new passion. He starts telling them that he will eventually make a documentary with the footage of them; oh and that he's no narc.
All of the big names, including Shepard Fairey of OBEY fame, can't escape from Thierry's filming. All, but one. Banksy, a world renowned British street artist; who is heavily secretive and reclusive seems to be completely out of reach for Thierry. However he later gets a hold of him, and becomes Banksy's right hand man. Banksy even allows Thierry to film his studio.
It goes much farther from there, but I don't want to spoil it for you. Let me just say that Thierry reinvents himself later on, in a way that isn't really that pleasing to me. But he seems pretty happy with himself behind his new persona as Mr. Brainwash.
The movie does a nice job of explaining all about street art and giving tons of showcases of Thierry's footage of all these artists. It gives you some history and throws you right into the action of the movement. It really got me interested and made me respect this new, hybrid form of graffiti.
The DVD itself has some nice features, as well as some cool swag jammed in the case.
There's two blank postcards with reprints of Banksy's paintings on them, as well as two stickers, and my personal favorite novelty item, Authentic 2D viewing glasses. Just put the on the glasses, pop in the disc, and stare out the window. Classic.
The DVD has the actual movie of course, but it also has some deleted scenes which aren't that interesting, and are better off deleted anyway. There's also a severely cut down version of Thierry's final movie, Life Remote Control, which is an editor's worst nightmare to look at. However the only real worth while bonus feature is a small documentary on the origins of Banksy. If you thought this movie was about Banksy, then this is the part of the DVD you were looking for.
Other than that, I found that the movie was a nice little documentary. Though the video image quality isn't very good on an SD screen. Luckily I have a DVD player with and HDMI cable hooked up to a 1080p TV for DVD upscaling to HD for viewing purposes. Really helps with lots of documentaries that have old videotape footage on them.
Definitely give this movie a buy sometime soon.