Matt's Writing

It’s an interesting world we live in when on an Emirates flight, I get to watch 2 meta-documentaries deconstructing modern consumerist society while flying to the city that epitomizes commercialism: Dubai. On the 15 hour flight from San Francisco to Dubai on Emirates, I watched Exit Through the Giftshop and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold , the Morgan Spurlock film. Both are worth seeing. Recently, there’s been a rise in meta-documentaries. The already postmodern film Tropic Thunder had a making-of film titled Rain of Madness . This is a parody of the documentary Hearts of Darkness , which was a documentary by Francis Ford Coppola about the making of Apocalypse Now . However, I should point out that these film choices are not quite as random of an entertainment selection as having Brian O'Nolan’s modernist At Swim-Two-Birds as an audio book on Delta when I flew from SFO to New York in August.

On a trip to New York City in August, I spotted this Hanksy painting on the wall. Apparently, there’s a guy parodying Banksy going around New York City posting stencils of Banksy’s iconic art with Tom Hanks from Castaway. This is an interesting addition to the street art conversation. After watching Exit Through the Gift Shop , I wonder if this is perhaps Banksy parodying himself or the work of Mr. Brainwash . I interpreted Exit Through the Gift Shop as Banksy parodying himself. In the film he’s questioning the commercialization of street art, asking what happens when this form of subversive art becomes mainstream and accepted by the art gallery and art collector world? The film also pokes fun at what he does by having this French director Mr. Brainwash become LA’s next biggest art sensation, although the vast volume of work he produced for the Life is Beautiful artshow looks like spin-offs and copies of Banksy and Shepherd Fairey ’s work. What’s also interesting about the film ...