The Thousands

Banksy is street art’s Scarlet Pimpernel; and compulsively camera-toting Frenchie Thierry Guetta seeks him here and seeks him there. Or does he? As Banksy – who appears onscreen with his face in darkness and his voice digitally camouflaged, said in his director’s statement: “Everything you are about to see is true, especially the bit where we all lie.”

Exit Through The Gift Shop purports to be a documentary portrait of a man whose shamelessness and narcissism make him fit perfectly into the media circus that street art has become. But Thierry, aka “Mr Brainwash”, is best enjoyed as a satirical monster in the vein of Nathan Barley: an over-resourced nincompoop convinced of his own significance. He never gets his comeuppance, but you kind of pity him anyway.

Despite its dubious veracity, Exit Through The Gift Shop still makes guerrilla art look exciting. It’s absorbing to watch artists work, and some of Banksy’s ideas – the murdered phone box, the Princess Di banknotes – are witty public interventions. He may imply that the commercial art world is founded on fraud and forgery, but Banksy’s film also reveals the energy and impertinence that make street art so popular.