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# ‘Devil and Daniel Johnston’ delivers
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/devil-and-daniel-johnston-delivers-2/
- Published: 2006-03-31T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:25:23.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

THE MOVIE: The Devil and Daniel Johnston THE DIRECTOR: Jeff Feuerzeig THE STARS: Daniel Johnston Madness and genius often walk hand in hand, as evidenced in Jeff Feuerzeig’s moving documentary about the troubled life of singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston. Combining audio and video footage that the prolific and persistently self-promoting Johnston recorded over the years — much of it spanning his childhood in rural West Virginia in the 1970s to his emergence as an unlikely leader of the burgeoning Austin music scene in the mid-80s — with testimonials by family members, ardent supporters and the artist himself, Feuerzeig effectively lays bare the high hopes, impossible dreams and countless disappointments of an ultimate outsider who somehow became one of the seminal figures in alternative music history.

Johnston, 45, currently lives in Texas with his elderly parents and thanks to an almost lifelong battle with mental illness — he suffers from manic depression — has never achieved the commercial success he’s craved since he began making crude basement tapes as a precocious, Beatle-worshipping teenager. But listening to his heartbreaking, sometimes embarrassingly honest expressions of unrequited love, it’s easy to understand why he has been lauded as a major influence on the likes of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, the Butthole Surfers and Half Japanese, all of whom have covered his music. Despite the erratic and self-destructive behavior that is a result of his condition, Johnston is a highly likable character, and one certainly worth rooting for. As he proclaims at the outset of a wonderful tune called “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” despite all his pain “he was smiling through his own personal hell.” For that, he deserves a standing ovation. (RATED PG-13\. RUNNING TIME: 110 MINUTES)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 31, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/033106.pdf?ref=smdp.com)