Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)

8.5/10
There is a certain point in Exit Through the Gift Shop (though it happens sublimely so it's likely a different point of the film for every viewer) where you figure out what's going on...and then, maybe a little bit later, the full-scale realization of what's going on hits you like a ton of bricks. For me the first came when I was watching Mister Brainwash's gallery opening and it was dawning on me just how awful, derivative, and puerile his art was. So, okay, it's intentionally bad art as social commentary. Fine. Then the second realization comes when you start to think that all these people really did show up at the gallery, bought his art, got his name in the papers, and the ultimate capper, that he's designing album art for a Madonna greatest hits collection...and the magnitude of the everything hits you like a ton of bricks.
This is a movie that goes way, way beyond words like "hoax", "mockumentary"...in fact, without exaggeration, I think it redefines the very word "hoax". It reminds me of the last lines of Pink Floyd's "Jugband Blues" - what exactly is a dream, and what exactly is a joke? Not the kind of movie that you'd want to watch over and and over again, but still one that will keep you up nights turning it over in your mind.