cernachc

This is an incredible touching, intimate and stark film. You follow a young woman, who seems so fragile lost in a world we all fear filled with drugs, hopelessness and even more frightening: Love. We've all seen the passionate and outlandish arguments on the street between people that call it home, but we disregard it all as fleeting and inhuman. This film puts a human face to the people we turn away from so quickly. I commend the filmmakers for not making heroin sexy. It's a sad disease you contract that's taken three of my close friends. This film helps us better understand drug abuse and the people stuck in that cycle. It couldn't have felt more real.

This almost the worst film I have ever seen. The first scene was so forced and terribly setup that I just hoped it would get better, but it doesn't. The premise could have been written by a twelve year-old. Does every character in American cinema have to be famous to have any credibility? The direction is so terrible. There is a whole section of dialogue shot from the character's backs while walking for no apparent thematic reason, besides a lack of creativity. The dialogue isn't even in sync. The director never gives you time to get a feeling of place. I'd say the only redeeming part of the film is Hugh Grant's corny antics on stage, but that is it. The saddest part about the film is that the humor is so childish and slapstick that the English as a second language audience I was watching it with were actually enjoying it. Makes it seem as if films are now made with out inspiration and just to be paid for, filling genre slots in cineplexes, so that romantic couples have a reason to not talk to each other. Finally, an hour in to the film I snapped out of the numbness walked out.

This film is a documentary biopic of struggling creative genius. Told from the perspective of his friends, family and the artwork of Daniel Johnston. More than 80% of the film must be video, audio, art and music from the artist. None of it is told from his 1st person present day perspective. This gives me the tragic feeling that he only exists in the shell of what he used to be before... Well you'll just have to see the film. I knew nothing of Daniel Johnston, before I saw the film, which does an amazing job of covering every significant moment in his life up to a few years ago. If you have ever wondered what would happen if a creative genius was born in middle America then this is it and it's beautifully documented.