Overnight (DVD)
Directed by: Tony Montana and Mark Brian Smith
Starring: Troy Duffy, his band, the directors, and a slew of celebrities

I first saw “Boondock Saints” on video in 2001. I liked it, and still kind of do. I knew right away though that it was a flawed Tarantino ripoff, but the performances are quite funny, there’s many memorable good moments and action sequences, and its generally fun. It tries to stir up some discussion about vigilantism, and it fails at that, however as an indie film I thought it was certainly above average. I believed the cult status it has accumulated since then was earned. But I had no idea of the story behind the director, Troy Duffy and his “Brood Syndicate”, and now that I do, I’ll probably never be able to watch Boondock Saints favorably again.

“Overnight” only recently hit DVD within the last month. It is a simple tale of the rise and fall of an overnight Hollywood success. Troy Duffy was a 26 year old bartender who through the gift of gab, and whose “Saints” script landed him a sweetheart deal with Miramax and the love of Harvey Weinstein. Despite having no film experience (not even film school), he was assigned the job of director. At the same time he has aspirations of success in the music business with his band, The Brood, and he brings the band aboard to become a part of the filmmaking process. Taking advantage of the buzz around him, troy has the band signed to a recording contract, without even having been seen. It�s a complete rags to riches story, and Troy immediately becomes a poster child for the American Dream.

The co-managers of the band, Tony Montana (yes, that�s his real name) and Mark Brian Smith are recording all this for a documentary. They’re already completely within Troy’s inner circle and capture every private moment, and are on screen a good deal of the time. They quickly come to see Troy emerge as a paper tiger, a pompous, arrogant man who is his own worst enemy. Despite submitting themselves to increasing levels of abuse, they decide to stay focused on sticking it out with Troy and the band, probably anticipating Troy’s fall from grace the second his big money deal was struck.

They don’t have to wait very long. Within the first half hour of the film, Troy is essentially ruined in Tinseltown. His big mouth and his bullying nature are his greatest strength and his largest weakness. He’s never happy. He’s always yelling, pointing fingers, talking behind others’ backs, drinking his blues away night after night (and assuming he can charm anyone just by drinking with them), taking harsh potshots at celebrities, and basically failing to get any work done. After a series of intense arguments on the phone, we eventually find out that someone at Miramax has put the movie on turnaround. He ends up with a producer with less than half the budget he could have had, and is stuck with lower tier actors (Patrick Swayze even passed on it, and sorry Billy Connelly, I love you, but if Troy wasn�t an asshole, you wouldnever had the part). When Troy visits a film schoolfor a talk, he verbally assaults several students because they want to know why he can’t even be proud of what he’s created. Because of all the bridges he has burned, he can’t get the movie bought at Cannes by any studio, and the movie ends up in only 5 theaters nationwide, and the Brood doesn’t even end up with a cut of the home video profits. Knowing all this, its less of a surprise to me now why he’s working on a sequel. Its his last shot at getting any money out of the Saints.

More interesting to me personally was the story of his band, which consists of his brother Taylor (whom a member of the Doobie Brothers calls “a genius”) and some friends from Colorado. We never get to hear any of their music, but they have an album still available as far as I know under the name “The Boondock Saints”(a girl band called “The Brood” wouldn�t allow use of the name). Troy is downright abusive and evil to these people who are supposed to be his friends, hisbrothers. In one interview he tells of how the bandwouldn�t amount to anything if it weren’t for him. It’s actually very true, but that he’d go on the record the way he does against his friends isabsolutely cruel. In one tense moment when the bandcomes into some money, he goes off on the band managers (the directors) about how they won’t beseeing any dough. The film’s climax is a bandmeeting, an amazing moment where Taylor breaks down and cries, unable to criticize his brothers behavior. Troy however, finds it quite easy to break hisbrother’s heart. The bands debut album ultimatelyonly sells around 700 copies, they are quickly dropped from the label and break up. Back to the day jobs for everyone.

Troy never shows any sensitivity to anyone on film, though the directors have said that he could have his moments off camera from time to time. I think most people have met someone like Troy, who act tough and think they can talk themselves out of anything, and that everything will go their way because they will itso and assume they are in control. When I saw him ina Metallica shirt it clicked in me how much he’s likeLars Ulrich, but much worse. The movie’s success isentirely Duffy’s doing. How could he not realize how lucky he is? I love documentaries where there’s a character you are either frustrated with or hate so much you keep watching waiting to see his inevitable failure. “Overnight” obliges and schadenfreude abounds. You could argue this is a hatchet job revenge movie, however I don’t think there’s any way to take Troy Duffy’s actions out of context. In fact, Smith and Montana claim they left out Troy’s worst moments where he is incredibly racist, sexist and homophobic.

The DVD extras are slight. I really feel a commentary track for this one was warranted to move this from ’solid rental’ to ‘must purchase’, but we do get a few deleted scenes, including one where the band hit on an actress working in a diner. There is an interview with the directors on an entertainment news program hosted by Barry Nolan, and some trailers for “Overnight” and a couple other documentaries.

I highly recommend “Overnight”, but not as a ‘making of’ movie. Anyone intending to know how Boondock Saints was made will be disappointed. Theres only 2 or 3 scenes on the movie set, and I’m glad. Duffy’s story is way more behave, regardless of what career path you take. — Goon