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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > Filmmaking > In The Soup

In The Soup

 

Picture:  C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

I appreciate anytime an independent film gets made.  It is not easy getting anything made about something when it is not about selling Happy Meals.  Alexandre Rockwell is a director who has been independent for a while and his 1991 feature debut In The Soup is yet another tale of someone trying to get into filmmaking.  This involves the lost soul Adolfo (Steve Buscemi) who wants to make film.  Nothing seems like it will work, until Joe (Seymour Cassel) shows up and is crazy enough to try and help him.

 

This is a film that attempts to be a comedy, but is never funny, while the comments about film and the industry are tired and so played out.  Though the late, great carol Kane appears, she is not here enough.  Will Patton, Stanley Tucci, Sam Rockwell, the underrated Debi Mazar and even Jim Jarmusch co-star, but it is Jennifer Beals who steals the show as the Hispanic neighbor who steals Adolfo’s heart and becomes his cinematic muse.  Still remembered for Flashdance back in 1983 and a better acting talent than ever given credit for, this should have re-ignited her career, but it was too buried in the obvious.

 

There is a lack of chemistry between Buscemi and Cassel that should have existed.  The film never finds its point and the comedy is one-note.  Too bad, because this is a great cast, but the script does not know what to do with them.  The film’s distinction is that it was shot in color, but released in black and white, which still has a color gray scale throughout regardless.  The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 x 1 version here is nicely transferred, but that color/monochrome issue is annoying to watch throughout.  To Fantoma’s credit, this looks as good as it can on DVD.

 

The sound is here in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is the highlight of the disc, sounding good for such a low-budget independent production.  Extras include three commentary tracks: Cassel solo, Alex Rockwell solo, and Rockwell with other cast members.  Beals does a good on-camera interview, plus you get extra scenes, bloopers, a gag piece on the Cha Cha repeated as a chart in the sleeve found in the DVD case, and some “home movies” of the production.

 

A winner at Sundance, the film has a cult following and is good at burying itself in the independent film world, yet too often feels like boutique product from a mini-major or boutique unit of a major.  In The Soup is not for everyone, but you may want to venture a look at it just the same to make sure.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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