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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Great World of Sound
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 13 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Craig Zobel
George Smith
Directed by: Craig Zobel
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 14, 2007
Running Time: 106 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language
Starring John Baker, Pat Healy, Kene Holliday, Michael Harding, and Barlow Jacobs
Martin responds to an ad in the paper for a company called Great World of Sound that's setting up shop in a generic office park. After his interview, he's invited to attend a Saturday seminar, explaining what the job entails. There he meets larger-than-life Clarence, and the two hit it off right away. At the seminar, an articulate but somewhat slimy man named Shank explains that the seminar participants have been selected out of a field of 80 applicants to be A&R executives for GWS, seeking out new, untapped musical talent. GWS will put out a record for these artists--all it asks for is a financial commitment from them upfront to show that they're serious, in addition to allaying the costs of studio recording time and marketing. After all, GWS is an independent record company working on a budget. Shank and his cohort go on to talk about how much money the producers stand to make. Then, as if to prove it, Shank dials into his bank account to let the room hear his $13,000-plus balance. Martin is suspicious, but Clarence believes that this is a whole new way of looking at the world, and if they sign someone that hits it big, they'll hit it big with them. Martin, who likes the idea of helping new artists, agrees to sign on with GWS. Clarence and Martin soon prove to be among the best of the GWS crew. But as the veneer falls away from GWS, Clarence and Martin have no choice but to reconcile the excitement and escape that their new jobs have provided them with reality. Have they become scam artists? Or are they victims of the scam themselves? (Magnolia Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Ken Fox
The result is a beguiling and often poignant pageant of outsider musicians, but the broken heart of this extraordinary film comes directly from Zobel's own personal experience.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Great World Of Sound is painfully specific about the music-scouting grind.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The laughs flow, but Zobel isn't content to rely solely on them. To his credit, he allows Martin and Clarence - and the film - to develop consciences.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
Once the story moves up north to Indianapolis, things become pat and predictable. But for its first 80 minutes, Great World of Sound hits all the right notes.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Great World of Sound, a Sundance hit, is Zobel’s first film, a confident, sure-handed exercise focusing on the American Dream, turned nightmare.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Enthusiastically received at Sundance, "Great World" is an intriguing look at our obsession with being successful and famous.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
I found Mr. Zobel’s film touching and amusing, but it also left me a bit queasy.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Morally ambiguous, subtly crafted, resolutely free of cliché and made with almost no money, The Great World of Sound is under-the-radar independent filmmaking in the Jarmusch-Cassavetes mode, both noble and ruthless in spirit.
Read Full Review >Variety Scott Foundas
Blessed with a witty script (by Zobel and co-writer George Smith), a talented ensemble of little-known character actors and a Meredith Willson-like feel for just-plain-folks Americans, this is a low-key but enormously charming picture.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Tim Grierson
A fitting 21st-century addition to the genre. The film's meager plotting and casual melancholy peg it as a modest indie, but these ingredients dovetail nicely with Zobel's bigger theme about the futility of the modern world.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The joke is that the salesmen believe they're actually trying to discover talent and - like the people they're encouraging - are victims.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Difficult to watch, and the film is sabotaged by an impossibly naive lead character and the repetitive auditions that become gratuitously depressing.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a6:
Be the mafia the next time your friend/relative sings for you, looks at you, and asks you that fateful question, "So what do you think?" Tell the truth. Don't let them chase a pipe dream. Believe me, it's better to be shot in the heart by a loved one than to receive some indifferent headshot from a complete stranger. Die in privacy; it's less humiliating. In "Great World of Sound", hopeless musical act after hopeless musical act of varying badness perform for two arts-and-repetoire men, who scam these starry-eyed performers with "oblivious" written all over their painfully earnest faces, because they were never told the truth. Gauging if Clarence(Kene Holliday) and Martin(Pat Healy) knew that their employers were con artists when they came aboard is open for debate, since these two men are newbies to the industry. In private, neither man ever questions the commercial viability of these musical acts. At what point does Clarence and Martin understand that their standard business practice for signing up "talent" is unscrupulous and unsound? They eventually do have an open dialogue about their dirty little secret(everybody sucks!), but exactly how long was this mutual admission in the making? Conditioned, we are, as an "American Idol"-nation, to laugh at poor singers and naive musicians, "Great World of Sound" will disappoint those expecting William Hung knockoffs, or a schizophrenic guitarist like the immortal Wesley Willis, because these auditioners perform without a trace of comic affectation. You won't laugh. You'll cringe. These are acts that even Danny Rose wouldn't touch.
Matt W. gave it a10:
What a wonderful film. A little light on story, but overflowing with intriguing characters. The performances of the two leads are top-notch and truly engaging.
