By the film’s end, Troy is broke, and the overnight sensation has even lost the bar. Fame can be so fleeting. Back in obscurity, he’s reduced to leaving threatening messages on Harvey’s answering machine …Bankruptcy couldn’t have happened to a better guy.
If you ever need lessons in how to lose friends and alienate people, check out Overnight, a documentary chronicling the rags-to-riches-back to rags saga of an unlikable jerk named Troy Duffy. In 1997, Miramax head Harvey Weinstein was so taken with a screenplay by the brash bartender from Boston, that he purchased the debut script for an amount rumored to be in the high six figures.
Plus, Harvey not only agreed to allow the inexperienced novice to direct the picture, but he bought Troy the pub he worked at, J. Sloans, as a signing bonus.
But judging by this behind-the-scenes look at “The Making of” The Boondock Saints, one has to wonder exactly what Miramax might have ever seen in this
arrogant, untalented bully.
For Mr. Duffy is a crude, condescending, chain-smoking, misogynistic, foul-mouthed, barely-literate alcoholic bigot, who has such an overblown ego that he has no idea how offensive and out of touch he is. Even though he was still an unproven commodity, he has no problem trashing such accomplished Hollywood insiders as Ethan Hawke, Brad Pitt, and even his benefactors, the Weinstein brothers.
“Look at how Jewish they’re being about it,” he complains about money differences at one point. “A quarter million dollars is chicken feed to them.”
Thus, it comes as no surprise that the deal soon unravels. The movie still gets made, but with another studio and only makes a paltry $25,000 at the box office.
By the film’s end, Troy is broke, and the overnight sensation has even lost the bar. Fame can be so fleeting. Back in obscurity, he’s reduced to leaving
threatening messages on Harvey’s answering machine like, “You fucking cocksucker! You fucked me! I hate you! I hate you all!”
Bankruptcy couldn’t have happened to a better guy.
Excellent (4 stars)
PG for nudity, sexual references, and pervasive profanity.
Running time: 82 minutes
Distributor: Think Film
