Film

In the Soup

Name: In the Soup
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 1992
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals, Pat Moya, Will Patton

Drama

A scrappy indie comedy about an unfinished screenplay and the unlikely friendship between a broke filmmaker and a small-time crook trying to finance it. Steve Buscemi and Seymour Cassel are magnetic together. It's awkward, funny, occasionally bitter—the kind of '90s oddball that shouldn't work but somehow does.

TMDb rating

3.4

If you liked this

Barton Fink1991

Another film about a struggling creator meeting a charismatic stranger who upends his life. The Coen Brothers nail the suffocating anxiety and dark comedy of artistic desperation and delusion.

But Dense, deliberately claustrophobic, and the ending divides people sharply. Some find it brilliant; others find it pretentious.

After Hours1985

Scorsese's comedy-thriller about one night spiralling into surreal chaos through downtown Manhattan. Funny, tense, weird—it captures that same sense of two characters trapped in an absurd partnership.

But It's a tonal rollercoaster that prioritises discomfort over plot coherence. The humour is very dark and specific.

Sideways2004

Character-driven comedy about friendship, failure, and the gap between who you thought you'd be. Tender and funny without ever feeling saccharine or maudlin.

But Some find the characters too self-pitying. The pacing is deliberate; nothing explosive happens.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from In the Soup

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both are about artists whose ambition becomes indistinguishable from self-destruction; both pair a dreamer with an older figure who pulls him off course.

Charlie Kaufman's only directorial feature: a fever dream about an artist creating a theatre piece that consumes his life. Surreal and devastating. It asks the same question as In the Soup—what happens when art becomes the only thing you care about?—but from the opposite angle.

But It's opaque, deliberately frustrating, sometimes unwatchable. The plot dissolves. Some people find it self-indulgent and impenetrable.

Withnail & I1987

Two broke misfits navigate absurdity and disappointment with perfect comedic timing. The script is quotable, the performances are flawless, and it gets funnier with repeat viewings.

But Very British in sensibility and extremely quotable, which means the fandom can feel precious. The plot is essentially a shrug.

The Hudsucker Proxy1994

A Coen Brothers screwball comedy with visual invention, genuine warmth, and Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh absolutely committed to the bit. It's joyful.

But The tone is theatrical and heightened. If you want naturalism and restraint, this will feel exhausting.

Raising Arizona1987

A criminal couple and a newborn baby. Anarchic, touching, hilarious—it bounces between genres without feeling unmoored. The Coen Brothers at their most purely fun.

But The frantic energy and thick accents aren't for everyone. Some scenes border on slapstick.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson1976

Robert Altman's strange, funny deconstruction of American mythology and show business. Paul Newman is brilliant. It's weird and digressive in the best way.

But Altman's overlapping dialogue and lack of plot momentum confuse people. It's an acquired taste, even for '70s cinema.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson poster

Local Hero1983

An oil company executive sent to a Scottish village to close a land deal finds his entire worldview challenged. Quirky, gentle, funny, and genuinely moving without trying hard.

But The pacing is very leisurely. If you need things to happen quickly, you'll get restless.

Adaptation.2002

Charlie Kaufman's self-loathing meta-comedy about writing, failure, and selling out. Nicolas Cage is extraordinary. It's about the exact anxiety that drives people like the character in In the Soup.

But It's genuinely exhausting and relentlessly self-referential. Some people find it more clever than actually moving or fun.

Killer's Kiss1955

Both are underfunded passion projects shot in the margins by young men who should not have been able to make them; both have gangsters and filmmakers/artists in strange sympathy with one another.

Kubrick's second film: a noir about a boxer and a dancer caught between two men. Shot in grainy, gorgeous black-and-white with dance sequences that feel like fever dreams. Scrappy, romantic, strange.

But It's very short and very rough. The narrative is thin. Some people dismiss it as juvenilia, and it does feel like a beautiful sketch rather than a finished statement.

Entourage2004

The core relationship—young talent and the older hustler keeping the machine running—is structurally identical. Both find comedy and pathos in the gap between ambition and reality.

Five seasons of HBO comedy about an actor, his friends, and the fixer who keeps them in business. Lightweight and hedonistic, but genuinely funny and shot with real affection for its characters' dysfunction. Better Call Saul proved you could make a show about a middleman; Entourage knows you can enjoy watching one fail upward.

But It hasn't aged well on gender politics. The show is also fundamentally shallow—it's comfort food, not nutrition. Later seasons run out of ideas.