Ham Chowder

In the Soup (1992)
directed by Alexander Rockwell
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

In the Soup dates itself through an early-90s triangulation of earnestness, light comedy, and wearing one's cinematic influences on one's sleeve. Alexander Rockwell could moonlight as a director of commercials for the Empire State Tourism Bureau, but even if he doesn't, there are enough "only in New York" eccentricities in In the Soup to fill a cab all the way to New Jersey. But I won't be mean; in spite of the sap, the agreeable warmth of the premise finds a groove to help pass the time.

Steve Buscemi, looking like a Bowdoin-era Matt Lieber, is funny. He's even handsome. I wanted to say it was nice to see Seymour Cassel in something not directed by John Cassevetes or Wes Anderson, but looking at Cassel's long list of credits on IMDB, it's clear that the fault for not watching him in anything else lies only with me.

Camaraderie is everything in a picture like this, and I couldn't help but think about Cassel, and his career that I mostly don't know about, and his years in Detroit before Faces. Do he and Philip Levine know each other? Do they get together and talk about the desert in California? Or crack jokes, probably.