Overnight
When I first heard about the documentary Overnight, it sounded like a great piece of schadenfraude. After all, there's nothing quite as satisfying as watching a blowhard crash and burn after hitting the jackpot and letting it go to his/her head. The fact that I was in the midst of completing a screenplay myself didn't hurt my interest. A year or so later, I finally got my hands on a copy and watched it this weekend. The basic premise is that Troy Duffy is a Boston native who becomes an LA transplant along with his bandmates, The Brood. He works at a bar off the beaten path from the typical LA scene. He also wrote a screenplay, which gets bought by Miramax called The Boondock Saints. This turns Duffy into a minor celebrity and makes him a classic Hollywood success story. It also turns him into an egomaniacal jerk who is determined to dominate the show business world both in film and music.
It becomes apparent quite quickly that Duffy's behavior rubs alot of people the wrong way and he quickly becomes persona non grata around town. His deal with Miramax faulters, his band gets dumped by Madonna's Maverick records and he is generally treated like pond scum by pretty much everyone. This, of course, doesn't change his belief that he will be the best thing to come out of the business and he proceeeds to continue to ostracize the industry and even his own friends and bandmates.
Eventually, both his film and band's album get produced and neither end up doing much of anything. He attributes his film's failings on Miramax blackballing him. As for his music failings, well, the rest of the world just doesn't get him. After all his successes and failings, he returns to Boston to speak to some film students and proceed to act above them once the engagement is over.
While certainly enjoyable, the fact that the film is produced by two of Duffy's disgruntled friends makes you wonder about the editorialized nature of the product. Clearly, Duffy is a jackass, but you leave the film finding nothing remotely redeeming about him. And there really is no good reason to believe such a person would get any sort of film/music deal in the first place.
Definitely worth a look if you're interested in the biz. I'd advise keeping an open mind on the subject though.
It becomes apparent quite quickly that Duffy's behavior rubs alot of people the wrong way and he quickly becomes persona non grata around town. His deal with Miramax faulters, his band gets dumped by Madonna's Maverick records and he is generally treated like pond scum by pretty much everyone. This, of course, doesn't change his belief that he will be the best thing to come out of the business and he proceeeds to continue to ostracize the industry and even his own friends and bandmates.
Eventually, both his film and band's album get produced and neither end up doing much of anything. He attributes his film's failings on Miramax blackballing him. As for his music failings, well, the rest of the world just doesn't get him. After all his successes and failings, he returns to Boston to speak to some film students and proceed to act above them once the engagement is over.
While certainly enjoyable, the fact that the film is produced by two of Duffy's disgruntled friends makes you wonder about the editorialized nature of the product. Clearly, Duffy is a jackass, but you leave the film finding nothing remotely redeeming about him. And there really is no good reason to believe such a person would get any sort of film/music deal in the first place.
Definitely worth a look if you're interested in the biz. I'd advise keeping an open mind on the subject though.
posted by Mike at 1:43 PM
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