Review of Overnight (1986) by Aaron T — 05 Oct 2009

Someone should package together a bundle of DVDs that are recommended viewing for film students that would present what to expect in the business. This would probably be one to watch near the end of your time in film school.

Troy Duffy is the rise and fall of the Roman Empire manifested into a single human being. In a series of events that is almost entirely unprecedented, he gets every opportunity he ever wanted handed to him on a silver platter. His attitude from the beginning, though, is not that this is an amazing opportunity, but that it was all his natural birth rite. He felt that he deserved every opportunity that he got, so he simply became more aggressive when people wanted to take that away from him.

This shows everything that can go wrong with your ego. Friends, family, colleagues, all turned away from him because he drove them all away.

This is in part because I really enjoyed Boondock Saints, and am even looking forward to the sequel. I think there's a lot of heart in that film, especially when it comes to the brothers. So when I watch this documentary, I wonder how someone like Duffy could make a film with heart, even though he seems to lack anything resembling one himself.

I'd love to think that maybe his attitudes changed after the events of this documentary take place, but by the end of the film, you know that someone like Duffy will never really change, but instead lapse into a brief remission.