>>REVIEW
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON
DIRECTED BY Jeff Feuerzeig
Opens Friday, July 14
Uptown Screen
Depending on your outlook, The Devil and Daniel Johnston is either a saddening story about a derailed musical genius, or a captivating one about a quiet artistic legend. Either way, you’re right. The film chronicles Daniel’s erratic behaviour – erratic, because he’s a manic depressive – both in regard to his career and his everyday life. Scenes in the movie range from frightening to heart-warming, to depressing to hopeful.
The film gets off to a slow start documenting Johnston’s early college years, when his mental illness was discovered. It is at the peak of his illness that we see him travelling the country, being passed back and forth amongst different family members while believing that he is a messenger of God put on earth to protect people from Satan. All the while, Johnston creatied masterpieces in both art and music, and even flirted with mainstream success in the mid-’80s, when Austin, Texas was the centre of a burgeoning music scene. It’s at this point in the movie that you wish for his music career to skyrocket and for his countless pleas for fame to be answered. Of course, that can’t happen. The rest of the film documents his countless stays at various mental hospitals, not to mention several run-ins with the law, until he finally ends up back at his parents’ home.
The film itself, like Johnston, is rough around the edges. Much of the footage is compiled from his own handheld camera – it seems that he was obsessive with recording everything he did growing up. As a result, the camera often dances in and out of focus, rarely keeping its subject in the middle of the frame. Normally, this sort of clumsy production would be distracting, but it works so appropriately with Johnston’s state of mind that you hardly even notice.
Director Jeff Feuerzeig hits every possible emotional high and low, interspersing performance footage with footage of Daniel offstage, as well as interviews conducted with everyone from his parents to Johnston’s former manager Jeff Tartakov, who is one of the most interesting subjects of the film. After being fired as Johnston’s manager, he began a record label, Stress Records, that exists solely for the purpose of distributing Johnston’s music. Such is the effect that Daniel’s music seems to have had on the many people he’s encountered.
Against all odds, the film ends happily, as Johnston is currently healthier than he’s been in decades, and continues to perform his music publicly. Though he never achieved the fame that he so openly craved, The Devil and Daniel Johnston shines a much-needed light on a little-known musical legend. |
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