"Overnight" has been described as the true-life story of a ballsy blue-collar independent film maker taking on a millionaire movie mogul tyrant. Guess which one you end up rooting for?Troy Duffy was a bartender with no movie experience. He'd never before written a script or even made a short. One day the millionaire head of Miramax Studios, Harvey Weinstein, strolls into Duffy's bar, buys a script off him and offers him $15M to direct the movie with his own choice of cast. "Overnight" Duffy was touted as the new Tarantinto. Stars flock to get drunk and hang out with him, hoping to get a part in the next "Pulp Fiction."Duffy asked friends Tony Montana and Mark Smith to document his rise to fame with a video camera. What they captured was arrogance the likes of which we've before seen on camera. If "Overnight" was fiction it would be dismissed as too over-the-top to be believable."Overnight" does however have flaws, in that there are many unanswered questions: Why did Harvey Weinstein sign an unknown quantity like Duffy? Why did Miramax suddenly drop him? Why do Harvey Weinstein and the actors never tell their side of the story?Montana and Smith have answered these questions in interviews, but they really should have included them in the documentary:In Hollywood just because a studio buys your script doesn't mean it's going to be become a movie. Sometimes they buy a script to stop another studio from getting it. Sometimes they buy on name alone. "Boondock Saints" is a great name, and some claim Weinstein hadn't even read the script when he bought it.It also depends on whether any big name actors show interest. Miramax sent their A-list star Ewan McGregor to meet Duffy in the hope they would hit it off and pair up. Instead McGregor returned disillusioned by Duffy's arrogance, drunkenness and inexperience. Although the documentary glosses over this, it was the turning point and from here it was all over: On top of Duffy's personal attacks, the questionable quality of the script and Miramax's own finances it was then Weinstein decided it was time to bail. Rather than being blacklisted, it seems no one wanted to work with him. But "Overnight" stays well away from this and leaves us scratching our heads. If anything, it looks like Duffy is being discriminated against because the Hollywood elite won't work with a 'First Time Director'. It would have greatly benefited if they explained what actually happened in-film."Overnight" does go very easy on Weinstein. Montana and Smith were in no mood to pick a fight with him and gave him an advance screening to let him know they weren't attacking him. Perhaps having seen it he felt there was nothing he needed to add?As for the actors we see almost nothing of, we assume they didn't sign releases to appear in the documentary. Actors aren't in the habit of criticizing their directors, no matter how deserved that criticism may be. Even Billy Connelly who has spoke about Duffy in public will only say the kindest of things. Montana and Smith said in interviews that the actors weren't impressed by Duffy's begging them to go out drinking with him, when their attitude was "Troy, we're trying to make a movie here." If they can tell us this in interviews, why couldn't they tell us this in the documentary?Montana and Smith said they decided not to do a "Making Of" documentary, but go too far the other way. We never learn why, despite Duffy having no experience at all, in "Boondock" he was able to turn in a relatively polished film. Is he a natural talent, or did the film's financiers parachute in an experienced production team to run the production for him? The question is never asked nor answered.Montana and Smith have been accused of being vindictive but given the way Duffy treats them on camera I think you can credit them with showing a lot of restraint. They said they left out many of Duffy's racist, sexist and homophobic rants. They also don't talk of Duffy's attempts to kill their documentary after his movie bombed at the box office and the record label dropped his band for poor sales.We are told it is bad to take joy in the failure of others, but Duffy makes this difficult. It's not so much his arrogance, but his appalling treatment of everyone - especially his "friends", and that he never admitted how things turned out is his own damned fault.The sad thing is that apart the film's financiers nobody did well out of the whole "Boondock" experience. Despite being known to Harvey Weinstein, Montana and Smith have been relegated to minor roles in the industry. Duffy's band never took off, and his actors never got their big break. Duffy himself couldn't land another job until he made "Boondock Saints II" ten years later. The sequel made a bit of money off the name, but reaffirmed that Duffy has no real talent. No good came of this, except as a morality play for the rest of us.There are many Troy Duffys in the world, but few of them are willing to show it on-camera. When Donald Trump does it you know he's hamming it up, but with Troy Duffy you get the real deal. For this rawness and despite its flaws "Overnight" makes compelling viewing. (If Montana and Smith decide to re-release this documentary with the missing material, I'll give them another two stars.)

I have to admit that I liked "Boondock Saints." I liked it because it was a Tarintino without the pretense that because you can engineer violent irony, you can make it engaging. I liked it because I knew that every actor was making up everything with no guidance. I liked it because it was a story of a mess that driven by the mechanics of messness, and that mechanics was visible as the point.Now here, we have the equivalent of "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse." Except this time the genius at the center is a moron who thinks he is a genius. There is a complete contrast from the attractive, nonsensical mess of "Boondock" and the grinding inevitable sense of this: jerk gets his due. It is simply a matter of watching the predictable grind through, with the only mildly interesting elements being a small glimpse into the movie business world. More interesting is the fact that we are watching something. We know that the band deal went sour. We know the movie deal did too. The documentary documents that. But it does not document itself. It turns out that the making of it was part of the deal, first supported out of pride and then out of sheer desperation for some money. The omission of the thing from the thing is glaring, and quite hypnotic.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

** MINOR SPOILERS **This film shows how the perfect opportunity can be destroyed. Troy Duffy is the writer/director who strikes it rich when his screenplay for "The Boondock Saints" is bought by Harvey Weinstein at Miramax. Duffy is going to get an upfront fee, get to direct, have his band do the film score and everything.But, when the film doesn't get made right away, Duffy's paranoia gets the best of him, leaving him on the outs with the studio. Duffy decides to take the film to a small studio, and get it made for half the original budget and for half his original fee.The remainder of the film shows the fate of the film and what becomes of Duffy and his friends.The bottom line is, once you get your deal, be thankful. Be passionate about your project, yes. But, realize that you are getting what so many others out there could only hope to have. Even if there are some bumps or lots of bumps in the process, you have to accept what comes your way. Because, the second you start alienating a studio, you can forget it.After all, would you want someone who you gave a big break to tell you to go (bleep!) yourself? No. Duffy does it, and in his meltdown, loses everything he had or ever could have.The film is well made, well paced and is one of the most telling documentaries on the film industry.( 8 Out of 10 Stars ******** )

"Overnight" was the most painful film I've watched. I was given the sense that I was watching something that I wasn't supposed to... From what a got from the "syndicate" that had to be subjected to a personality of delusional dimensions, it was a painful experience for them as well.The "experience" was the Troy hurricane, a firework that goes up with so much fanfare and noise but fades out. Throughout the film, the viewer gets to be seated shotgun next to Troy who is never at a loss of colorful words and opinions that only further damn him as the film develops. This was a film about a man digging his own grave and spitting on everyone that cared to listen. If Troy had a gentle moment, it was edited out. Does he have a gentle side? His burliness is tolerated by his own family and friends (barely). In the thin aired space of intimacy with Troy taking up all the resources and reminding everyone to thank him, I was uncomfortable watching for his inevitable demise. We have the filmmakers to thank for sitting in the hot seat and rolling the cameras.