Exit Through the Gift Shop, 2010, Documentary
Plot: This film followed the story of Frenchman Thierry Guetta’s rise to fame within the street art world as a “Mr. Brainwash” or MBW for short.
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| “They got Mona Lisa’s on sale! 2 for $15!” |
Thoughts: This documentary, directed by Banksy, was very well done and left much open to discussion that is also up for the Oscar for Best Documentary this year. I haven’t seen the competition, but this one looks like it could come off on top. It was interesting to finally get a viewpoint from the street artists’ minds. To me, graffiti is far more than vandalism and this documentary both proved and disproved my point.
The entire documentary seemed to be the evolution not only of Guetta’s rise to fame but also his descent from a bumbling idiot to a narcissistic (I’m all over that word lately), disillusioned fool. His work ended up being sold for millions and at the end of the doc, many of the artists that had taken Guetta under their wing now regretted their acceptance of such an imbecile.
What could have been a revolutionary film ended up being just a great one, but “just great” isn’t too bad at all.
4.2/5
For this double feature (which I’ll be doing until I catch up) I’ll start at the beginning with Precious.
Precious, 2009, Drama (viewed on 1/18/2011)
Plot: The story of a teenager who’s overweight, pregnant, illiterate, and lives with an abusive mother. She seeks to reclaim her self respect and dignity through the many trials that life continues to throw at her.
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| How I felt throughout most of the movie. |
Review: Okay, I heard that this was an Oscar-winning film and I refused to watch it for reasons which will not be discussed. I must say that this film is exactly what I thought it would be, so shout out to my manly instinct and precognitive abilities.
After about 15 minutes in the story got somewhat repetitive. I was wondering how awful a life could get. For every step she took forward she was “pushed” 10 backwards (did you see what I did there? “push”). Anyway, I know it may be just my well educated, suburban upbringing that leads to the disconnect with the film overall, but I won’t allow that to hinder my judgement of the film.
Precious did raise some issues that are affecting many of our youth, primarily illiteracy which affects more than you realize. The acting was also superbly done, although Mariah Carey seemed like a random placement. Gabourey Sidibe was great playing the daydreaming Precious, but many times in the film I couldn’t understand a word she said and worried about missing an important plot point, causing me to miss another crucial moment in the dialogue. Mo’Nique’s anger and motherly facade dichotomy was played beautifully, I grew to hate her in the movie (which was the entire point of her character).
One thing that I noticed, which does not make me a genius on film, was that every positive character in the movie was of light complexion; i.e. the teacher, the counselor, the nurse. Kind of seemed like propaganda to me.
In the end, like most Best-sellers turned blockbusters, I believe that “Precious” should have just stayed as “Push”, although it did relay valuable undertones for powerful lessons to be learned from our lost youth within the education system.
2.2/5
That’s it for today. Tomorrow’s Valentine’s/ Singles Awareness Day so I hope you enjoy yours with a nice guy or gal, Ben & Jerry’s, or both!
Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Did You Hear About the Morgan’s (making sacrifices for V-Day lol jk.) and Machinist (one of my favorites thus far).
-Brandon
The Film Chronicles 