overnight

[MacGuffin]

FEATURE - An OVERNIGHT Cessation
The movie was a flop; the documentary about it was a flop. But filmmakers Tony Montana and Mark Brian Smith are hoping for better success this week on DVD.
By Annlee Ellingson, FilmStew.com

Back in the late 1990's, Marley Shelton was a rising actress coming off of Pleasantville, screenwriter Troy Duffy was the darling of Hollywood's latest mega-bucks spec deal, and pals Mark Brian Smith and Tony Montana were getting ready to chronicle the filmmaker's production of The Boondock Saints, which Miramax had promised to pay him upwards of $1 million for and had thrown in the West Hollywood bar Sloan's for good measure.

Eight years later, Shelton and Duffy are somewhat inexplicably partnered together on the 2005 sequel Boondock II: All Saints Day, while buddies Smith and Montana are still trying to pick up the pieces of their ill-fated non-fiction journey. Despite a huge build-up of Sundance buzz and media attention last year prior to the release of their documentary about Duffy, Overnight was a resounding theatrical flop and now comes to DVD this week with the hope that a few more people will finally catch up with Duffy's rags-to-glitches story.

Certainly, the DVD's Deleted Scenes will allow viewers to become that much better acquainted with Duffy's seemingly made-for-Hollywood MO. "If a manager of an actor wasn't working with him, if that person happened to be gay, well then he was a pedophile," Montana recalls during a recent interview with FilmStew. "If the studio head, who happens to be gay, wasn't cooperating with Troy the way he thought he should cooperate, meaning access to, well then he would suggest he was having a bad AIDS day because he had AIDS."

"Troy calling [Miramax executive] Meryl Poster a c*nt [in the film] was kind compared to the other things he said about her."

What distinguishes Overnight from the smear campaign Duffy has accused it of being is that it's clear that, while Smith and Montana do infuse a dramatic sense of foreboding early in the film and employ pointed juxtapositions in the latter acts, this damning portrait is solely Duffy's doing. And all these years later, emotions are still raw, as Smith and Montana are not only willing to share even more horror stories about their former friend that didn't make it into the film but come prepared with files of evidence that Duffy hasn't changed from the experience that has left him effectively blacklisted.

"Humor," says Montana, who with his head shaved is the more intense of the filmmaking team, when asked about Duffy's allure. "He just had a lot of charisma that he sort of wore on his sleeve."

"Another thing that attracted both Tony and I to Troy was his bed of knowledge on many different subjects," adds Smith, who with his casual matinee looks seems more laid back. "We shared the same musical tastes, we shared the same tastes in film, but also here's a kid who read a book a week growing up. His father was an English professor, and he would surprise us for being such a brass individual and being a chain smoker, alcohol-swigging, and he wore the same outfit everyday."

"He was ambitious, like a lot of people who come out here, like Mark and myself," Montana says. "We were attracted to the people who were like us."

Once Duffy began to attract attention for his script and his music (he and his band were also hired by Miramax to do the soundtrack for The Boondock Saints), however, that ambition manifested as a raging ego. There were red flags from the very beginning.

In November 1996, Montana says, "We were starting to document him pursuing both these mediums [film and music]. I said, 'Which one do you want to do, and how far do you want to go in both? Which one do you really want to do?' He goes, 'I want to both equally,' he goes, 'and I want to be a legend.' People don't generally talk that way about themselves when they haven't really done anything yet."

"Two weeks later, we're in Boston, and then he's like," interjects Smith, who graduated with degree in film production at NYU, "'Mark, do you think you can do this documentary on your own? You don't need Tony Montana. We need to get him out of here.'"

It wouldn't be the first time that Duffy would turn on his friends. In the movie he even turns on his brother Taylor in an emotional scene that serves as the climax of the film. The funny thing is, Smith and Montana say, that wasn't even the worst of it. Still, what does make the DVD cut explains why, on several occasions, Duffy tried to wrest control of Smith and Montana's documentary.

"Troy would do these sick things where we would have meetings where we were literally locked in the room for hours," Montana says. "On one of the occasions when we were locked in the room, he sent [his] drummer, who was rooming with [Mark]."

"He sent him with the keys to Mark's apartment to get the documentary footage and take it back," Montana continues. "This was within the first six months of the project, because we spoke our minds about something. He took all of that footage and put it in a filing cabinet in his f*cking office at Paramount where we were all sharing space."

"We had to go through leaps and bounds to get that material back," Smith says.

After that, Smith and Montana moved their footage to Hollywood Vaults, which in addition to being temperature- and humidity-controlled, was secure. "We wanted to make sure that there was no way that anybody could get to our material," Montana says.

Little changed once Smith and Montana began post-production on the film. "The four years following it, trying to get this thing to be a salable film, the legal struggles that we went through and the editing struggles that we went through and the financial struggles that we went through, were in some ways worse than having to tolerate his behavior for five years," Montana says.

"We had to go underground to cut this movie," Smith adds. "We had to lie to people on the street we ran into. Only our closest friends and family knew we were editing the movie in those couple of years we were editing, because we knew that he would do anything in his power to take control of this film and stop us."

"[But] not only did Troy sign the release," Montana says, "but we filmed him signing it." - so there was little Duffy could do once the film was finished.

And even though it soon became clear that Smith and Montana were not filming an overnight success story after all, they chose to persevere with what they felt was entertaining material. "We embraced the darkness," recalls Smith. "You have to embrace the film and change your way of thinking a little bit, that this is not an overnight success story, this is not going to be the next Quentin Tarantino, but there is something special about this story."

Without that belief in the material, Smith says, "We would have walked away about a year into it. I can say that for myself."

For Montana and Smith, what is ultimately most revealing about Overnight is that Duffy appears to have learned nothing from the experience. "Troy didn't have the personality tools to be successful as a businessperson," Montana says. "He wrote an A script, but he delivered really a B or B- movie by a lot of people's standards. The studios didn't like it, and they didn't buy it."

"Troy still hasn't learned anything from the process at least that he's doing behaviorally different," he continues. "Still chain-smoking, still going out and drinking every night, still being misogynistic, still pontificating. Even right here, a recent interview that he did: 'I'm never tired of fans recognizing me in public. You know they are true fans because if someone like Brad Pitt is in a bar, everyone knows who he is. But to know who I am would make you a true fan.'"

[Ravi]

Just finished watching Overnight.  I echo the positive comments written here.  My main complaint about the film is that it didn't make clear what about the script made Harvey Weinstein go ga-ga over it in the first place.  And am I correct in assuming that Duffy yelling at the William Morris guys was sort of the beginning of the end?

The DVD should have included more deleted scenes or interviews with the two filmmakers.  What was included wasn't very good.

[MacGuffin]

Oh My God! What an asshole. I can't believe the band members put up with him for so long. Right off the bat his ego got inflated.

The doc shows in great detail all the bad moments, like his brother finally confronting him about how he's changed, but then it cuts to them shooting the CD cover. I would have liked more explaination about what happened inbetween moments like that. Him blowing up at the agents, casting, etc. then cutting to start of production on the film is another example.

[Weird. Oh]

As soon as I heard of the concept of this movie, it was on my must-see list. Having worked at a video store and hearing how great "boondock saints" was and still resisting pressure to see it, I figured this would be a good window into why people liked Boondock Saints.The thing is-everyone that tells me they love Boondock Saints that I know, usually have horrible taste in film from my viewpoint.

All I can say after watching Overnight is, all this good fortune couldn't have happend to a worser person. Troy Duffy is the epitome of everything I despise in a human being. Arrogance, ignorance, an overblown sense of self value, shitfaced mother fucking piece of shit (you can tell this film made me hate him). Of course, this is not the depiction of Duffy through the eyes of admirers (if there are any besides himself). However, I think that Smith and Montana depicted Duffy as well as they could given the material. Now this I witnessed this guys antics I vow never to view Boondock Saints. If the option was death by firing squad or watching Boondock Saints, bring on the firing squad.

Naturally, I'm using a bit of hyperbole. Self-aggrandizment is Duffy's trade. Don't tell Duffy otherwise, though, he might rip his overall's off and rip your head off.

[Pubrick]

The thing is-everyone that tells me they love Boondock Saints that I know, usually have horrible taste in film from my viewpoint.

welcome to xixax, the following threads may be of interest to u..

movies assholes dig
Why does anyone like the Boondock Saints?

[Weird. Oh]

The thing is-everyone that tells me they love Boondock Saints that I know, usually have horrible taste in film from my viewpoint.

welcome to xixax, the following threads may be of interest to u..

movies assholes dig
Why does anyone like the Boondock Saints?

Edit: Fixed  

[Pubrick]

your boondock saints observation is not new if you have read xixax before. it's actually a cinematic rule.

[Pedro]

The doc shows in great detail all the bad moments, like his brother finally confronting him about how he's changed, but then it cuts to them shooting the CD cover. I would have liked more explaination about what happened inbetween moments like that. Him blowing up at the agents, casting, etc. then cutting to start of production on the film is another example.

Cutting from something with the text "10 minutes earlier" on it to a black screen that reads "five months later" was great.  Maybe we're supposed to assume that in those five months there was just more insanity?  That's what I got out of it anyway...

This really is a fantastic documentary.  I just don't understand how Duffy could say all the shit that he did or how all those people could worship him like they did.  "Troy walks into a room and he brings everyone down to his level.. or up to his level, however you perceive it"  And as the film goes on the really funny moments dissolve into these incredibly intense confrontations and disgusting displays of attitude.  But aside from the "i can't believe this is real he's such a jerk" comments that most (understandably) focus on, I have to say that the way the film was edited impressed me.  It could've been longer; a bit more complete, but I don't think I could've handled anymore.  It packs so much material into 80 minutes, and its full of off-putting cuts like what i mentioned above.  I was thoroughly engaged.