Irish Film Institute -Overnight

Overnight

Director: Troy Duffy

U.S.A.| 2003. Colour. Dolby stereo. 82 min.


Overnight is a fascinating, rough-edged documentary about the making and breaking of an ill-fated Miramax project called The Boondock Saints. A jaundiced look at the mercurial world of independent filmmaking, it also presents a compelling but unflattering portrait of bouncer/bartender turned writer-director Troy Duffy, a hard-drinking egomaniac who blew one of the most amazing movie deals ever made in Hollywood. Harvey Weinstein not only paid Duffy $300,000 for his sub-Tarantino script, he also gave him a $15 million budget, got him signed by the prestigious William Morris talent agency, and arranged for Duffy’s band, The Brood, to record the movie’s soundtrack. But it wasn’t long before Duffy’s arrogance and aggressive paranoia jeopardised the whole package.
Filmmakers Mark Brian Smith and Tony Montana, originally invited to record Troy Duffy’s groundbreaking triumph, found themselves documenting the rapid disintegration of the movie and recording deals. Not to mention Troy’s relationships with his brother and co-musician Taylor, and their fellow band members. Some may think of this as a cautionary tale for naive filmmakers, but it works best as a dissection of Troy Duffy’s self-destructive spiral. Duffy likens the movie business to a high school playground, where the biggest bully owns everything; but he seriously underestimates the power and vindictiveness of Harvey Weinstein, the dirtiest fighter of them all.
The Boondock Saints did eventually get made, for half the original budget, with Billy Connolly, Willem Dafoe and porn star Ron Jeremy amongst its cast members. Unsurprisingly, it is every bit as bad as this plunge into Troy Duffy’s dark cesspool of creativity would suggest.

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