Overnight (2003)

Although I’ve seen both Boondock Saints movies, I really didn’t know anything about its writer and director, Troy Duffy. He wrote the script during his brakes as bartender and was discovered by Harvey Weinstein, who offered him a contract and an opportunity to make his movie.
This documentary follows Duffy from this moment and keeps doing so for several years. Troy Duffy was heralded as Hollywood’s next big writer and director. A lot was written about him. When you look at his IMDB profile you’ll see that he has only made 2 movies, The Boondock Saints and The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. After watching this documentary it becomes very clear what the possible cause of this might have been.

Troy Duffy is shown as (and whether he is or not I do not know) a horrible person who wants to make his movie and make a success of his band. He just tells his band that they are to shut up, listen to him and follow him as only he knows how everything should be arranged. He tells them that they would not be anywhere if it wasn’t for him. Rude language is used against everyone and he is regularly shown cursing out the people he saw the night before (like Ewan McGregor or some film students). It seems like he really doesn’t know how to successfully run a business, because if you keep acting like that to everyone people will start ignoring you. He burned a lot of bridges and even his band members were afraid to stand up against him.

This documentary was mainly shot with cheap cameras and the editing isn’t always done as it should be. There is a scene in the movie after a meeting between the band members where they were arguing. A title card shows that it is now winter and you see some shots of the band members sitting with disappointment in their faces…and that’s it before the next year is shown. It just didn’t add anything to the movie. At the end of the movie there is also a very strange scene where the makers insinuate that someone was responsible for an accident that happened without saying anything else about it. Things like this gave me a feeling that it was not polished enough and made it seem amateuristic.

Watching Overnight feels like someone is yelling in your ear for an hour and a half, not saying anything which might lift you up and at the same time that person thinks that he’s right because he yelled at you. It’s the way Troy Duffy is shown in this documentary. It’s better to skip it and read this summary:
It looks like Troy Duffy was the reason that he didn’t have the future he envisioned. No one can tell him they do not agree with him and when they do he ignores them and yells at them. It really surprises me that after this documentary he still managed to make that second Boondock Saints movie.

Score: 4