The Devil and Daniel Johnston finally made it to Burlington and I finally saw it. Schizophrenic. Attention to detail. Spastically thrown together, but with an intense and intensely insightful knowledge and understanding of the surprisingly enormous heaps of existing material. I had no idea! Daniel J's tape-recorded voice notes are right on. I'd never imagined he had so much video and (amazing!) super 8 footage. Edited even. You can see the man come through.
I've seen Daniel J perform and I still had no idea. We said hello after the show and he said back: "Good luck." He said the same thing to Matt Groening at the end of the film. He must say it to everyone.
Watch for the insightful details on director Jeff Feuerzeig's part: The Metallica press photo (excellent), the contrast between the label bands and Daniel's painful "realness". Gibby Haynes in the dentist chair acting smug, Thurston Moore trying to talk Daniel down from manic schizophrenia. It just gets realer and realer. I love the shaky home movie footage that wears you down before you're hit with the slick, photo op jobs with the record execs and the hippest artists in the country. And the interviews are on color 35!! And there's loads of it!
It doesn't get more real than the redneck, sleeveless-T, motorcycle-ponytailed, Texas gallery owners describing Daniel's annual shows. Or the "Fuck Satan" T-shirt on the local Waller, Texas shredmeister. "Are you Daniel Johnston?" Are good artists crazy? When we've decided whether Daniel J is a good artist, we'll have our answer.
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