In the Soup (Un mare di guai)

Sometimes you're kind of reluctant to watch a movie because you don't really expect anything of it, but then you end up being so pleasantly surprised! I had that experience with "In the Soup". This film truly is a little gem as mentioned before. This strange, offbeat movie grew on me with every scene I watched. Steve Buscemi is brilliantly funny as script-writer and 'wannabe' director Adolpho. Seymour Cassel is great as well but I definitely shouldn't forget to mention Jennifer Beals.. my god, how this woman made me laugh! She was pitch perfect for her role as Buscemi's cranky Latin-American neighbor Angelica, his secret love interest who he wants to star in his movie. I can highly recommend this movie, if you're a Buscemi fan, it's a "must-see" !

What a refreshing movie! Fans of oddball movies should definitely put this on the to-watch list. Aside from a hilarious cameo by Jim Jaramusch and Carol Kane, Steve Buscemi and Seymour Cassell team play the roles of wanna-be filmmaker and questionable money man like they were born to. Shot in glorious black and white, the film makes a half-hearted serious turn at the end but it is too late to really make a difference in the movie. Also watch for Will Patton's turn as yet another bizarre person.

A neurotic nebbish (Steve Buscemi) lives in two worlds: the fantasy of winning his dream-girl (Jennifer Beals) via a hit movie, and the meager existence he scrapes out from very odd jobs, such as thesping in an arty no-budget flick.

How fitting that Jim Jarmusch has a cameo, because this film is very much a Jarmusch type of movie. Had his name been under the "directed by" heading, I would never have doubted it. Which, I suppose, is a compliment to the real director. You also have to hand it to them for getting such a stellar cast. Buscemi is an indie darling, but Beals had already gone big by this point -- it was brave for her to take this role.

This is not so much a movie about making a movie as it is an underworld film. Not a mob movie, exactly, but definitely people of loose character who walk on the edges of society. And yet, there is something rather charming about them.

In the Soup was a part of the 1992 Sundance selection, one of the various efforts engulfed by the wave of the audacious debuts of Tarantino and Rodriguez, and yet it is the freshly resourceful, deeply personal film that either of them have yet to make even now. It is a comedy about a self-conscious screenwriter named Adolfo, played by the ubiquitous Steve Buscemi, who has written an unfilmable 500-page screenplay and is looking for a producer. Wherever Alexandre Rockwell's career has gone since this much-overlooked flick, there is a great deal of clarity here. As an aspiring filmmaker at the time I see it, I can understand a lot more about Adolfo's vision as an aspiring filmmaker than what is actually said. Such a convoluted vision Buscemi has that is relieved and clarified by his experiences.

Such experiences include the appearance of Seymour Cassel's Joe, a fast-talking shyster who promises to produce the film but has his own unique ideas regarding film financing. There are so many realistic scenes between an obsessive, complicated artisan and a simple street guy, intensified by the specific external realities of theirs which clash. There is so much more about Adolfo's emotional state during his exploits with Joe than what he narrates, "Instead of making my movie, I was living in his." Whatever Joe and his intentions may or may not turn out to be, Adolfo now, rather than cloistering in his sketchy NYC apartment synthesizing the styles and thematic elements of his cinema idols, he actually has something personal and profound to say and to write.

A low-budget indie feature debut, originally shot in color but released in black and white, it does not play out like an art film. The story is simple, earnest, real. Even when Buscemi narrates and explains in dialogue his ambitious cinematic visions, it is his character who handles this, not the outer film. There are no airs to the dialogue, and many of the peripheral characters are for comic effect. Will Patton seals the deal on Buscemi's interpretation of Joe and his occupation. Stanley Tucci is hilarious as his neighbor Beals' emotional Hispanic husband. And it's refreshingly funny to see Sam Rockwell as a retarded kid with a helmet.

Reservoir Dogs was an auspicious debut to match, and though El Mariachi hardly compares to the Tarantino film's writing or star power Rodriguez opened almost as many eyes for its generation to the potential of completely autonomous ultra-shoestring-budget indie film-making as Cassavetes did 35 years earlier. So, I am not partially or rationally surprised that Rockwell's In the Soup was lost under the sudden and violent windstorm phenomenon of those other two simultaneous selections, nor do I think that it's nearly as easy for personal filmmakers to remain consistent with critics and audiences as action filmmakers with more common filmgoers' appeal. Nonetheless, this down-to-earth little gem hopefully holds its own over time.

"In the Soup" is a nice little gem of a movie. If you liked Steve Buscemi in "Ghost World" you should like him here because he is basically playing the same perpetually dour and befuddled character. And if you liked "Ghost World" in general you should like "In the Soup" because they have a similar theme and storyline. They both focus on a character being taught how to live by the example of another character. "In the Soup" does not have "Ghost Story's" ironic twist (where the teacher is the one who actually learns how to live). It is more straightforward and not as clever but is still light years more intelligent than most mainstream films.

Buscemi's character needs a producer for his 500-page screenplay with quirky features like beginning with a 20 minute black leader (just a blank screen) to introduce his lead character's blindness. He intends to cast his neighbor (and unrequited love interest) Jennifer Beals who barely acknowledges his existence although he sleeps with her shoe under his pillow. Buscemi gets "in the soup" when he hooks up with a gangster who wants to produce the film. Seymour Cassell plays the gangster with an infectious gusto that deservedly won Sundance Festival's Best Actor Award. All three performances are excellent, as is a brief appearance by Carol Kane as the co-producer of an access TV show featuring nude interviews (The Naked Truth).

If all this sounds to you like it could be fun you are this film's target audience.

Shooting in black-and-white on a tight budget Director Alexandre Rockwell has put together a funny feature with a lot of charm. The production values are first-class. More importantly he has told a worthwhile story and communicated useful lessons to apply to the process of living.