Overnight
- The Disc:4.0
Hollywood is littered with tales of broken dreams, of nai`ve individuals crushed by the cruelty...
Hollywood is littered with tales of broken dreams, of nai`ve individuals crushed by the cruelty of a movie business that puts the bottom line before everything else. The bracing documentary Overnight, however, tells a very different type of Hollywood story. In this sad but very funny tale, it's the artist who engineers his own downfall, mainly because he's just, well, a complete arsehole.
Meet Troy Duffy - bar bouncer, rock musician, writer and director. When Miramax (the major indie company ruled over by the ruthless Harvey Weinstein) sniffs out his script for the violent thriller Boondock Saints, Duffy's got it made in the shade. He's anointed Hollywood's Next Big Thing, the money is rolling in, and the film is set to go. But Duffy's massive ego (his non-stop trumpeting of his bad boy, working class roots is nauseating) soon starts to push his dream project off the rails. His tirades of abuse (all witnessed by his crew of pals, a bunch of sniveling sycophants to rival Elvis's Memphis Mafia) push Miramax away, leaving Duffy to independently finance Boondock Saints. Though the film (which is actually very good) ultimately becomes a cult hit, Duffy is left high and dry, and he hasn't made a film since.
As an expose on the inner workings of Hollywood, Overnight is endlessly fascinating, but as a scathing portrait of a truly awful individual, it hits on a kind of repugnant genius.
