You know the moment in war movies where one of the grunts turns to his mates and shows them the dog-eared photo of the wife and kids on the farm in Kansas? He might as well point the muzzle at his forehead and pull the trigger himself for all the chance he has of surviving after that.
What, though, has that got to do with a documentary about the trials and tribulations of a wannabe moviemaker? Well, from the moment at the start of this doc that ego-charged Troy Duffy growls, "Friendship's the most important thing in the world to me, the most important thing," he's just as doomed.
An egomaniac with a wire wool personality, Troy's clearly talented... just nowhere near as talented as he thinks he is. It'd take some hellish combo of Martin Scorsese, Keith Richards and Donald Trump to be the supreme filmmaker, rocker and business genius that the boy Troy believes himself to be.
He's barely tolerable when things are going well. But when Weinstein - a huge offscreen presence throughout the doc - drops the film and a proposed record deal with Madonna's label falls through, Troy adds a hefty load of paranoia to his already combustible personality. And that's where this documentary - shot by two of Troy's increasingly unhappy mates - really kicks into gear.
Screaming abuse down telephones, stitching his friends up over money, constantly telling everyone how great he is... Hollywood doesn't turn Troy into a monster, but it certainly gives his inner monster a lot of nourishment. You'd almost think he was putting it on for the cameras. Except - judging by the horror-stricken looks on the faces of his family and friends - he's clearly for real.
It's compellingly painful, with the guilty fascination of a train wreck. Some of the side issues - at one point there's a suggestion that someone tries to have Troy bumped off - get skated over too quickly for perfection, but you can't blame them for wanting to get the cameras back on Troy's public implosion as quickly as possible.
An object lesson in what happens when an elephant-sized ego is let off the leash. Wannabe movie-makers should be forced to watch this. gunpoint if necessary.
