Not Coming to a Theater Near You

The Devil and Daniel Johnston / USA / 2006

What brilliance The Devil and Daniel Johnston retains is in the title artist/songwriter himself, in his magic marker drawings taped to an art gallery wall, and in his profoundly, sometimes awesomely frank music. He’s somewhat of a peripheral character in his own life story, appearing on sparing occasion to verify facts given by others: that he has mental disorders, that he (now) takes lots of medication, and that he caused his father’s airplane to crash land, very nearly killing them both. In the latter instance, Johnston’s father relives the scene — how Daniel removed the keys from the ignition and threw them out the window — and comes to tears. The composition encloses Mr. Johnston’s face tightly; it’s a vindicating moment in documentary film, one that is also totally familiar and, in my eyes, entirely contrived. Much of the film is also told in Johnston’s own tape recordings; they’re sort of spoken diaries, and there are an uncountable number of them. Often, you’ll see a cassette tape (strewn in Johnston’s own cartoonish handwriting) occupying the entire frame with absolute precision. The recording ends, and you hear the sound of a stop button being released. This tactic is used repeatedly in the film, enhancing not its authenticity but its artifice. In another instance, friends recall how Daniel smacked his manager at McDonald’s with a pipe, and the composition finds a recreated crime scene: a lead pipe adjacent to some drops of blood on an immaculately lit tile floor. This strategy evokes comparisons to Errol Morris, which isn’t appropriate being as here the crime isn’t being reconsidered. It’s just an unnecessary visual aside, of which there are many in this film.

Daniel Johnston on The Henry Rollins Show

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Sony Pictures Classics DVD
25 Sep 2006 11:46 AM | Submit Comment