2. The Devil And Daniel Johnston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZOe65eA4Y Daniel Johnston's legacy is divided between a critically exploitative display of his music and a deep kinship from his most ardent followers. The film "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" takes the approach of understanding the outsider artist as much as possible, through the people who are closest to him as well as following him as he exists in the present day. For many, Johnston's songs are those which most deeply understand feelings of depression and mental illness, but being someone who most understands mental illness means that you have the burden of dealing with mental illness. The film examines his series of nervous breakdowns throughout the 1990s as he drifts in and out of psychiatric hospitals and becomes what he calls "the ghost of Daniel Johnston" at the start of the film. And often cinematic approaches of mental disorders tend to sensationalize for some sort of dramatic effect, but "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" hits its exploration of the topic on the nose. The film's importance is equal in navigating the life of an acclaimed outsider musician as well as mental illness in general. There is a celebratory nature at the end that leaves us with images of Johnston still performing - though of course this celebration comes with its footnotes. The footnotes in question being that Johnston's fight with manic depression and flights of grandiosity still remains, albeit to a possibly more muted extent, and they have essentially sucked him dry. It gets what is at the crux of his output - an understanding of our darker sides, but an inability to not be overwhelmed by his own darkness.