Starring: Troy Duffy, Willem Dafoe Script: Mark Brian Smith, Tony Montana Running Time: 1:55 Country: USA Year: 2004
One of the great pleasures of attending a film festival is discovering films you haven't heard of, trailerless virgins that are devoid of the marketing hammer. Motivated by a usual thirst for documentaries, Overnight, a film announced as the rise and fall of an independent filmmaker, looked interesting enough to wait for its late night screening. The result far surpassed my expectations, providing one of the juiciest times I have had at the movies this year.
Overnight centers around Troy Duffy, a vulgar and egocentric barman who, a few years ago, managed to sell Miramax head Harvey Weinstein the right to his script as well as a contract for his band and co-ownership of his pub. Duffy was surrounded by a posse of friends that included Overnight co-directors Mark Brian Smith and Tony Montana, one the manager of the band while the other one was supposed to document their "historic" simultaneous film and music rise to fame. Burdened by Duffy's extraordinary ego and lack of temper, the odyssey quickly turned to a debacle and the tandem Smith/Montana, repudiated in the process, stuck around, enduring Duffy's humiliation just for the sake of their film, which they knew at the time, would turn out as a great anti-fable on how to make it in Hollywood.
Despite it's mockumentary aspect, Overnight also provides a great look at what happens behind the scenes. A highlight is to see how Duffy's pub became a kind of show-business black hole attracting everything from agents, to executives and actors. Like a group of starving sharks, they all gather in the bar, night after night trying to close deals or to get a role in Duffy's movie—he is supposed to be the next big thing after Quentin Tarantino. And this is actually where, right from the beginning, that Duffy unknowingly loses it all, as Weinstein's protege refuses to meet with such big names as Ewan McGregor & Brad Pitt (while welcoming second-rate bananas like Patrick Swayze.) Even though we see Duffy and his team starting their own production company, we already know things won't go as planned as Weinstein no longer answers his calls. From there, they are confronted by succession of obstacles, but nothing seems to affect Duffy, convinced of his invincible talent and power. The more it gets difficult, the more unbearable he becomes, getting rid of some of members of his team (Smith and Montana), getting into conflict with his own brother and insulting the rest of the world.
With his unique talent at burning bridges, it's hard to believe that he still manages to get his projects to go through. With his band, The Brood, he releases a CD, which is pulled off the shelves after only a few weeks because "the next big thing" wasn't able to sell more than a few thousand copies (if you check Amazon.com you won't even be able to find it, which is the ultimate sign.) As for his screenplay, he finally ended up directing it after a few years of delay and having been turned away by all of the studios in town. A smaller indie studio greenlit it for a small fraction of its original cost. Amusingly enough, I remember being told about this film a few years ago and watched it with much pain, wondering how Willem Dafoe ended up in such a third-rate picture—it's called The Boondock Saints.
Overnight is unique in its genre as it's at the same time a documentary that morphs into a real-life comedy, drama, a how-not-to-guide for debutant filmmakers and ultimately Smith and Montana's sweet revenge against the odious Duffy—this documentary has become a Trojan horse for Troy Duffy.
Overnight review
