The Devil and Daniel Johnston

In earlier times, Daniel Johnston might have been burned as a heretic or confined forever to an asylum of shrieking inmates. But in this pop-cultural age, the self-taught singer-songwriter -- given to paranoid delusions about Satan and violent outbursts -- has become a revered cult figure.

As Jeff Feuerzeig's compelling "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" shows, Johnston's songs have been covered or admired by the likes of Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits and Sonic Youth. But writer-director Feuerzeig gives us more than a chronology of Johnston's kooky ascension into MTV mythology. The documentary shows how his unsettling combination of musical genius, insanity and torment also exacted a price on his inner circle -- family, friends and musical associates who have experienced firsthand his mood swings, rantings and even assaults.

A mystic who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household, Johnston wrote inspired and unpolished songs that drew rapt attention in Austin in the heyday of its 1980s punk scene. But in the '90s, Johnston succumbed increasingly to his delusions, becoming convinced that his fast-growing fame made him a target of the Devil. He was institutionalized for hitting his manager in the head with a lead pipe and imprisoned for scaring an old woman so much she leapt from a one-story building and broke her ankles.

"Devil" leads us into that dark, uncharted valley where evil, genius, divine inspiration, insanity -- and other unfathomable mysteries -- commingle. It also examines the hyperbolic industry of instant celebrity and ultimately shows us the complex algebraic equation that is Daniel Johnston's life.

-- Desson Thomson

Contains disturbing themes and profanity.