Tribute To Fragile Music Cult Figure

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday May 9, 2007

By PHILIPPA HAWKER - The Age

REVIEW

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (M)

Director: Jeff Feuerzeig

Screening: Newcastle Showcase City Cinemas at 1pm on Sunday as part of the Sydney Travelling Film Festival

Rating: * * * *

DANIEL Johnston is a vulnerable but surprisingly resilient figure: a singer, songwriter and artist who has spent much of his adult life in mental institutions; a creative figure who resists easy categorisation and remains an elusive element in the film that deftly and inventively pays tribute to him.

Johnston became a musical cult figure who performed songs of haunting directness and oblique intensity. MTV sought him out; his painstakingly recorded cassette tapes became collectors' items; Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with one of his distinctive drawings on it. But, as one of his friends noted, whenever things seemed to be at their best for him, the worst was about to happen.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a story of frequent highs and lows, surprising twists and turns: it is a skilfully composed depiction of fragility and strength, pain and purpose.

Feuerzeig has a rich supply of the material that Johnston continues to generate, and access to most of the key people in his life, although not Johnston's muse, a young woman called Laurie.

This is a work by a fan and admirer that remains open and thoughtful, and allows for complexity and ambiguity. The Age