The Devil and Daniel Johnston

This movie was brilliant - but totally weird. Daniel Johnston was this young man, artist/filmmaker/singer-songwriter, a little wacky but that's to be expected from an artist, and then he developed symptoms of... manic depression? Schizophrenia? Hard to say. But, he jacked up his career, went in and out of mental hopsitals, preached against the evils of demons, did some other things that I won't tell you about in case you see the movie, and now he's a middle-aged heavily medicated fat guy living with his elderly parents, singing songs that I just don't get. That's the story in a nutshell, and it certainly doesn't give you all the tragic nuance that is this film, but I guess I "didn't like it" because I don't think Daniel Johnston is a brilliant musical genius. I'd say he's clever, and talented, but I think he'd be just another guy who didn't make it as an artist if he didn't have such a major break with reality as he was finding a little local fame. The whole movie was painful, partly because of the subject matter, but partly because Daniel's music struck me as not that good.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston - B-