Weather | Traffic | Surf | Maps | Webcam   »Next Story»  Local
News  Currents Weekend  The Last Week  Weekly Sections Subscribe
to the UT  The San Diego Union-Tribune  'Daniel Johnston' is an
odd grind to get through   April 7, 2006  Pop culture
cultishness sweats a full bucket in “The Devil and Daniel
Johnston,” a film that is over-the-top compulsively (even the
title, echoing the rootsy “tempted by the devil” of bluesman
Robert Johnson).   "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" Rated PG-13;
Opens today  Daniel Johnston, raised by devout, bewildered
Christians in West Virginia, proclaimed his art frenzy early,
puzzling many. He ran off with a carnival and landed in the
1980s music hub of Austin, Texas. In the movie, we see him
turning from a slender “freak” with frantic eyes to a bloated
mental casualty with often sedated eyes.  Loaded with home
movies, childish drawings and bad recordings, the film circles
its subject obsessively, like a besotted bug. It suggests that
Johnston, a compulsive (and naively derivative