Monday, July 26, 2010

In A World With No Rules, One Man Broke Them All




Exit Through the Gift Shop:

  • Is this film worth your time? Yes. Unless you don't care for art or politics. Then no.
  • Director: Banksy
  • Starring: Thierry Guetta, Banksy, Shepard Fairy, Invader
  • Running time: 87 minutes

Just as a piece of art is supposed to do, Exit Through the Gift Shop leaves the ultimate interpretation up to you. Is it a satire? Absolutely. Where does the joke stop? You can't be sure...but that's all part of the intellectually stimulating fun.

Exit is a documentary (or possibly a mocumentary) narrated by Rhys Ifans, that turns the camera around on Thierry Guetta, a man obsessed with street artists who filmed and filmed and filmed until he became overwhelmed. Banksy, the elusive street artist, then took over, telling the story of Guetta and his transformation from ogler to "artist".

Above all the film is about poking fun at "the scene", artists and the idea of art itself. Guetta who decides to transform himself into a street artist demonstrates the thin and blurry line between powerful, political commentary through images, and hollow, technology-dependant, trendy junk. By using tried and true marketing techniques and infiltrating the L.A. "scene", Guetta who begins to assume the pseudonym Mr. Brainwash to promote his "art", establishes himself overnight. Scenesters line up by the hundreds to check out the latest "it" artist, collectors following suit and perfectly illustrating the arbitrary nature of market economics. As demand increases, absurd price tags are happily obliged.

British wit and French idiosyncrasy collide to provide some great fun while the unsettled treatment of art as politics leaves one uneasy, pushing forward the blank space of a canvass on which to ponder and create your own convictions. It helps to keep the title of the film in mind as you go about trying to figure it all out.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Non, rien de rien...Non! Je ne regrette rien...



INCEPTION:
  1. Is this film worth your time? YES. YES! And YES.
  2. Writer/Director: Christopher Nolan
  3. Cast: Leonard DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy (Um, yum? Hunk dropped onto the collective laps of North Americans out of nowhere), Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy and Marion Cotillard.
  4. Cinematography: Wally Pfister (Nolan's man, he has done everything you know Nolan for)
  5. Music: Hans Zimmer (Who else?)

    I am a woman obsessed. Possessed by Inception and the heights that human creativity can take. The word genius is thrown around pretty lightly, but Chris Nolan merits the title.
    I won't recite the plot - suffice it to say that the film it is about a world where it is possible to enter people's dreams and steal their ideas. Is it possible to plant ideas there too? and what are the consequences?
    Nolan masterfully guides us through this world and gently forces us submit, go along for the ride and let our guards down. I found my emotions at the surface; and myself existing with a heightened sense of awareness. In this state of mind, even the death of a very old, multi-jigillionaire twit (within a dream no less!) made me pensive and depressed.
    To me, Inception wasn't about the plot, the uncertain outcome (though I did run around asking everyone how they interpreted the ending), or anything else other than how the combination of everything made me feel. The music, the powerful acting, the competent direction and the creativity of the story all led me to truly feel the cliche concept that this world is full of infinite possibilities, made me want to get out of my seat, made me want to think, to understand, to act. Yes it was fantastic entertainment, but it was about a more lasting elevated sense of existence too.
    I have read the words of many respectable critics who claim that the speed and complexity of this film does not allow us to connect with the characters and feel for them. I disagree emphatically. There is a scene where Cobb (Dicaprio) witnesses one of the most horrifying things someone can witness happen to the love of their life. His reaction is devastating, gripping and real. Aside from Sir Ben Kingsley's superb reaction to the tragedy of ...'s death in The House of Sand and Fog (I shan't spoil that movie), I can't remember being this affected by a scene of grief and devastation as I was in Inception. The scene is repeated twice, each time delivering a blow.