About an Artist Growing Old.

87. The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005)

Where to start with a character such as the indie rock legend Daniel Johnston. Individual stories and pieces of information about the man sound fictitious at best, compounded altogether, which this rock documentary does, sound like grand Rock and Roll myth. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is the first of a few documentaries on this list (though I hope to post a couple more when I give honorable mentions for movies not on the list soon enough). Johnston was born in Sacramento, California and grew up in West Virginia. At an early age his creative talents were evident but his family, which happened to be based in conservative religious values, was concerned with where he was going in life.

At a young age Johnston began taping home-made cassette recordings of music inspired by The Beatles that he would write and perform on his own. His musical career hit a jumping point when he lived in Austin, Texas after handing out his cassette recordings to nearly anyone he met connected with professional music. Attention skyrocketed when Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain was photographed wearing a t-shirt with the image from Johnston's album Hi, How Are You? This caused record companies to begin competing for the artist even though Johnston currently resided in a mental institution after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

To begin work on his studio album in a mental institution is only one of the few seemingly outlandish stories behind Johnston's life. Others include suffering an episode in New York while the band Sonic Youth searched the city for him and throwing the keys of an airplane out the window while it was still airborne. Though his chaotic escapades brought on by his mental disorder built his infamy as an extreme rock eccentric his deeply heartfelt music built his notoriety as an artist. Admittedly Johnston was and is not a technically gifted musician in that he can't play particularly well, and now given the medication he has to take this is even more evident, but as a true artist, as a musician able to use his craft to capture the love, hurt, desire, and other emotions within himself, he is a master artist with few equals. With music about unrequited love and personal identification Johnston boldly projects his humanity to be identified by the rest of the world, a gift from a tormented musical poet, to be cherished.

10 Films of 2005:

The Devil and Daniel Johnston just slightly misses the list for 2005 by one spot.