So you want to be a radio star? In this "low-key but enormously charming picture" (Variety), Clarence and Martin are two down-on-their-luck guys who answer an ad to become music scouts for Great World of Sound, a record label discretely located in a bland strip mall. "Working their unlikely chemistry in motel rooms in cities across the South, the two become Great World of Sound's biggest producers, auditioning aspiring musicians by the dozen and signing them to pay-as-you-go contracts. But as this quiet, funny, warmly acted story unfolds, its cruel ironies deepen. In order to keep their friendship and business partnership intact, Clarence and Martin have to ignore the increasingly obvious fact that they're running a vicious con game, squeezing money out of other people's unlikely hopes and dreams. Morally ambiguous, subtly crafted, resolutely free of cliche 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. Clarence and Martin never seem like types, or symbols of working-class struggle. Indeed, the larger point of this engrossing little picture may be that to make our way in the world we all make choices almost as unsavory as theirs." (Salon.com) More at greatworldofsound.com 35mm
2007, color, 1 hour 46 minutes, USA