Want to waste a couple of hours and then hate what you just saw? Welcome to hell. It's a particularly grating hell, because it sums up what everyone really hates about all pretentious artists, films, and films about artists.
This one in particular glorifies a talentless French wannabe artist, Mr. Brainwash, ("MBW" for short, aka, Thierry Guetta) whose one claim to fame is that there are two other artists faking glorified reviews of his so-called art, which is just ripping off of many other more talented artists.
He is undeniably the least talented of the bunch of artists portrayed here, a bunch of street artists who suddenly became famous when one of them, Shepard Fairey, did an iconic portrait of Obama during the run up to the election in 2008. Since he and Banksy both vouched for Mr. Brainwash, that was enough for the entire Los Angeles art scene to fall all over themselves gushing praise about his so-called art.
The first half of the film is pretty useless, and overly padded with the worst footage of Thierry's home movies, and the only word to describe them is Unwatchable. Then what follows is a long section of MBW, still named Thierry, following a lot of street artists as they do their illegal tagging, nearly getting caught, and even at one point being held by the police at Disneyland. Quelle Suprise!
The last part of the film is the worst statement about art and the garbage that passes for it in the Los Angeles scene. It sets up the city to be full of mindless sycophants, all of whom have no idea what they're looking at, and to add to their gullibility, pay enormous amounts for the privilege of owning a piece of the garbage. I cannot for the life of me understand what in the hell made this piece of crap film so worthwhile that it got an Oscar Nomination, but my guess is that Banksy's publicity machine may have had something to do with that.
This one in particular glorifies a talentless French wannabe artist, Mr. Brainwash, ("MBW" for short, aka, Thierry Guetta) whose one claim to fame is that there are two other artists faking glorified reviews of his so-called art, which is just ripping off of many other more talented artists.
He is undeniably the least talented of the bunch of artists portrayed here, a bunch of street artists who suddenly became famous when one of them, Shepard Fairey, did an iconic portrait of Obama during the run up to the election in 2008. Since he and Banksy both vouched for Mr. Brainwash, that was enough for the entire Los Angeles art scene to fall all over themselves gushing praise about his so-called art.
The first half of the film is pretty useless, and overly padded with the worst footage of Thierry's home movies, and the only word to describe them is Unwatchable. Then what follows is a long section of MBW, still named Thierry, following a lot of street artists as they do their illegal tagging, nearly getting caught, and even at one point being held by the police at Disneyland. Quelle Suprise!
The last part of the film is the worst statement about art and the garbage that passes for it in the Los Angeles scene. It sets up the city to be full of mindless sycophants, all of whom have no idea what they're looking at, and to add to their gullibility, pay enormous amounts for the privilege of owning a piece of the garbage. I cannot for the life of me understand what in the hell made this piece of crap film so worthwhile that it got an Oscar Nomination, but my guess is that Banksy's publicity machine may have had something to do with that.