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In the Soup Actors: Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel Director: Alexandre Rockwell Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Black & White, Widescreen Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 93 minutes Studio: Fantoma Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-07-27 Buy from Amazon |
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From Amazon.com This is a low-key gem that is at once about the power of dreams, the power of suggestion, and the tyranny of artistic vision (when there really isn't one to fight for). This disarming comedy by director Alexandre Rockwell was a hit at the Sundance Festival but barely registered commercially. Steve Buscemi stars as a hard-luck case: Adolpho, a wanna-be filmmaker with a phone-book-sized screenplay and no money. He lives in a hellish Lower East Side apartment and has a thing for his standoffish neighbor (Jennifer Beals). When he places a want ad to sell his script, he lands Joe (Seymour Cassell), a would-be investor who, it turns out, is really a con artist. Together, they go looking for money to make the movie. A dizzily funny and understated film in which Cassell gives the performance of his career. --Marshall Fine |
 "Decent Independent Film"The movie takes more than one viewing to really enjoy. Rather good commentary and extra features; 3 commentaries and interviews. I love the group commentary it's insighful and funny. "back in black & white"In The Soup is a fine modern indie-styled film. The story features Steve Buscemi (Aldolpho) as the bedraggled screen-writer, or screen-writer hopeful, who is infatuated with his neighbor, but at the same time willing to do almost anything to get his script published or rent paid. In fact, I believe it is whatever comes first. This is Aldolpho's way till interest peaks in his script from an apparently rich man named Joe. But money sometimes charades with smiles, and Aldolpho is tossed into a more-then Hollywood plot of his own. I personally find this really quite funny. At times you kind of question what's happening, and really why, but as long as you run with it you should end up really enjoying the film. The characters are interesting, and quite match the relativeness of the sleazy apartment complex, but that adds all to the interest. My favorite portrayal was that of Seymour Cassel's character as the more then eccentric 'fool' that is Joe. Why at times the craziness of his actions makes you just so curious, while other times he makes the audience purely laugh out loud. All though you may find the black and white disturbing, this was yet another nice impression to enhance the style of the film; and, as long as you can look past it and the oddity of it all, then please do relish the film. ""Clove Oil? What are you, a salad?""The title to this review is one of my favorite movie lines ever, EVER. This movie came out right before Steve Buscemi had a part in literally every movie that came out for 2 straight years. As cool as he is, I must admit I got a little over-Buscemi'd there for a while. This is one of my favorite roles he's done but the main reason I have always remebered this film is Seymour Cassel. His role as the fatherly, mysterious and awesomely spontaneous gansgter is pure freakin' genious. I've yet to see him in a role I didn't like but this has got to be one of his best. Another classic Seymour Cassel line: "20 minutes, what are they gonna do, read it in brail?" You'll just have to see it but trust me, if you even remotely enjoy films by Hal Hartley, Jim Jarmusch and the like, you will love this film.  ""Every great artist had to suffer a little.""Adolfo Rollo (Steve Buscemi) is flat broke and the rent is due. He has only one precious possession to sell--and that is a 500 plus page film script of his epic "Unconditional Surrender." Adolfo places a 'for sale' advertisement in the paper, and someone responds. Adolfo meets the prospective purchaser Joe (Seymour Cassel) in his run-down hotel room. Adolfo wants $200 for the script, but Joe gives him $1,000 and offers to get funding to make the film. Now since Joe makes the offer in his underwear--without even bothering to read the script--it's obvious that something is wrong here. "In the Soup" is a wildly bizarre comedy--there's not a normal character in the entire film. Jennifer Beals plays Angelica--Adolfo's prickly neighbour, and she has a few problems with immigration. Adolfo has a giant crush on Angelica, and wants to put her in his film. His relationship with Angelica is complicated by her bizarre, jealous, obnoxious French husband, Gregoire (Stanley Tucci). Adolfo's landlords are the singing Bafardi brothers, the owners of Bafardi's liquor. And then there are a couple of nudist game show hosts. Amidst all this madness and mayhem, Joe attempts to get funding for Adolfo's incredibly rotten film. Joe and his psychotic brother, Skip have some illegal methods to get the money. I read several professional reviews of this film that stated that it was not funny. I must say that "In the Soup" was one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. For the first half of the film, I laughed practically non-stop. After about the halfway point, the film briefly lost some of its humour and took on a more serious tone, but then the humour quickly swung back into motion. Autobiographical events in director's Alexandre Rockwell's life inspired the story. Rockwell isn't too well known in America, but he also directed "The Wrong Man" story in "Four Rooms." "In the Soup" is inspired, original, wickedly funny, bizarre, and quite fantastic. Adolfo's life is going nowhere, and then he meets the unstoppable Joe. Joe is one of those people you never forget--although you can't quite fathom him either. Steve Buscemi as the loser Adolfo is marvelous. He seems to have a knack for these sorts of roles, but it's Seymour Cassel's film all the way. "In the Soup" could well become a cult classic, and it deserves a much wider audience--displacedhuman "A Lot of Fun""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. |
