In The Soup (1992)

A down and out aspiring film maker (Steve Buscemi) sells his script to a con man (Seymour Cassel) involved in illegal activities who promises to raise the financing to shoot the film. Meanwhile, the writer is obsessed with the Latina (Jennifer Beals, who was married to the film's director at the time) who lives next door. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival, Alexandre Rockwell's idiosyncratic, almost surreal, B&W caper has some charm and wit which goes a long way in tempering the irritating sense that the film is often being quirky for quirky's sake. Peculiar characters like the couple played by Carol Kane and director Jim Jarmusch pop in, do their few minutes of schtick and just as quickly disappear. Buscemi does the quintessential Buscemi schlub here but it's Seymour Cassel who takes over the movie, he's just so much more vital than anyone else in the film. Still, all in all a good example of early 90s independent film making. With Stanley Tucci, Will Patton, Debi Mazar, Sam Rockwell and Elizabeth Bracco.