Photo: Andrea Arnold's Great World of Sound
With The Great World of Sound, director Craig Zobel peels back the curtain on America's American Idol-exemplified obsession with achieving stardom to reveal, well, exactly what one might expect: desperate, largely talentless individuals with unjustified faith in their imminent success, and sketchy entertainment industry folks eager to greedily exploit those fame-seekers for their every last cent. Itinerant Martin (Pat Healy) lands his latest job as a Charlotte-based record producer with Great World of Sound, an upstart company led by men whose Successories-style platitudes are abundant and whose business model is dubious. Martin is paired with gregarious Clarence (Kene Holiday) and sent out on the road to audition prospective acts, with the main—nay, only—goal being to convince people to fork over 30% of the costs it will take to record, market, and distribute their CDs (which amounts to roughly $3,000). It's a huckster's life, and one initially depicted by Zobel as presenting enticing monetary and status opportunities to small-time nobodies like Martin and Clarence, two endearing guys whose middle-of-the-road lives are stuck in neutral. Nick Schager
With The Great World of Sound, director Craig Zobel peels back the curtain on America's American Idol-exemplified obsession with achieving stardom to reveal, well, exactly what one might expect: desperate, largely talentless individuals with unjustified faith in their imminent success, and sketchy entertainment industry folks eager to greedily exploit those fame-seekers for their every last cent. Itinerant Martin (Pat Healy) lands his latest job as a Charlotte-based record producer with Great World of Sound, an upstart company led by men whose Successories-style platitudes are abundant and whose business model is dubious. Martin is paired with gregarious Clarence (Kene Holiday) and sent out on the road to audition prospective acts, with the main—nay, only—goal being to convince people to fork over 30% of the costs it will take to record, market, and distribute their CDs (which amounts to roughly $3,000). It's a huckster's life, and one initially depicted by Zobel as presenting enticing monetary and status opportunities to small-time nobodies like Martin and Clarence, two endearing guys whose middle-of-the-road lives are stuck in neutral. Nick Schager
