Overnight [2003]
Director: Tony Montana, Mark Brian Smith
Actor: Troy Duffy
This is kind of like an alternate version of “The Making of…” The making of The Boondock Saints. Well, it’s not, really. It’s more the rise and fall of its spiritual father; Troy Duffy. He was a poor guy from Boston who went out to L.A. to make it in the music business. He and his band The Brood, later renamed The Boondock Saints, were trying to break through and get a record deal when he was working at a bar. One night he sees a deceased drug addict being wheeled out of an apartment adjacent to his and he gets the idea for the film. He writes it, works on it, and shops it around, and one day, Harvey Weinstein, boss of Miramax who had at that year’s Oscars scooped up every possible category and he promises him that he will finance the movie, give him creative control and buy the bar Duffy works at, and let Duffy co-own it with him.
From that moment on he becomes an Overnight celebrity and he and his band rise to stardom even before he’s done anything. He’s the quintessential example of The American Dream.
…until Miramax pulls the deal and do a complete “turnaround.” Which mean, in movie-land, that they don’t want to have anything to do with the film. At that point Duffy’s ego has ballooned to a massive, uncontrollable size, and he obsessively tries to get the movie made, burning bridges and upsetting everyone, including his friends in the process. And this documentary deals with that. The train-wreck journey of The Boondock Saints and the career of Troy Duffy from start to finish.
Enjoyable watch.