Review of Overnight (2003) by Matthew B — 21 Nov 2009

This compelling documentary chronicles the rise and astonishing fall of would-be American film maker Troy "I'm A Massive Twat" Duffy. You may know Duffy as writer/director of cult indie film The Boondock Saints. What you may not know is, upon penning the script Duffy was offered a deal by Miramax bigwig Harvey Wide-stein (sorry I mean Weinstein), then, probably the most powerful man in American cinema. He was given a budget of $15million to direct the movie. As well as this Duffy's band, comprising of himself, his brother and some friends were handed a 5 album record deal and would complete the sound track for the film.

Somewhere along the line it all went wrong. Horribly wrong. Like, Reservoir Dogs wrong. So what happened? Well simple...Troy Duffy is an ENORMOUS wanker. Ego tripping his way out of the Miramax deal, pissing off Weinstein so much he gets blacklisted in Hollywood. But it doesn't stop there, the band sell a disasterous 649 copies of their album and are promptly dropped quicker than third period French by their label.

The dellusions of Duffy know no limits - he claims Weinstein wants to be him, Miramax are scared of him, and, perhaps most laughably, he thinks he can get Di Niro.

Anyway, Boondock Saints is eventually picked up by an independent studio and, given limited screening, flops at the box office. Though it did develop a cult following on cable tv, dvd and vhs, a deal Duffy signed with distributors meant he made no money from that. What a shame.

Simply put Troy Duffy is a talentless, potty-mouthed, drunken bully who never deserved the chance he was given and i'm glad he fell flat on his fat ass in the face of potential success. The only shame is he dragged his friends and family down with him, destroying their lives and any hope of future careers for any of them.

Maybe THIS film should have been called How To Lose Friends and Alienate People.