"I took my lucky break and I broke it"

Good God (no pun intended), run right out and rent The Devil & Daniel Johnston. The last documentary that knocked the wind out of me (Capturing the Friedmans) made me an instant pest/bully to everyone I know: "See it. See it now. Seriously. Now. Have you seen it yet?" Commencing pestering. This documentary is freaking unreal.

If you don't know much about him--and aside from his track on the Schoolhouse Rock Rocks tribute CD I didn't-- Johnston is a singer-songwriter-cum-cartoonist from New Cumberland, WV who's seriously manic depressive. Not in an "I'm an art school drop-out who needs some cache" way. This is an apparently sweet guy tangled in a real, violent, dark knot. The documentary tracks Johnston's weirdness and the wonder it inspires in everyone around him, from the runaway success of his handmade tapes in Austin, TX to being chased all over NYC by Sonic Youth to stays in state hospitals. It shows Johnston, with his tiny voice--the kiddie-ness of Adam Sandler with a little lispy alt-folk whine--doing everything from appearing on MTV to being strapped down by the State Police. SPIN magazine interviews him while he's on a break from wiping down McTables.

I can't describe, even, one of Johnston's breakdowns because it would rob you of all the hang jaw moments in this film. I can't even quote any of his better diatribes (Johnston captured his decline on audio cassettes and Super 8) because you might write it off as self-indulgent, manufactured crap. You have to hear this stuff from the horse's mouth to believe it. I don't know if Daniel Johnston is a real genius or just a nice guy with a horrible illness and some clever lyrics in his pocket. I just know that his life story makes for one Hell of a moving, funny, upsetting, important movie. We should all be so [un]lucky.