The email that brought Craig Zobel's Great World of Sound to my attention made the near-fatal mistake of reference American Idol, at which point my brain turned off and I reached for the delete key. People, reality TV does such a good job of parodying itself that there's no reason for anyone else to try. Thankfully, however, in the time it took to reach said delete key I noticed who said email referenced as a co-producer: David Gordon Green, director of George Washington and All The Real Girls. If Green's involved, there's got to be something going on, I reasoned, and so I took a closer look. Good thing.
What the film actually is is a wry look at a real life con known as song sharking. Here's how it works. An unscrupulous company places ads in small towns advertising for open auditions, promising talent scouts and the opportunity to sign a record deal. People show up and, regardless of how good they are, are given the chance to sign a deal provided they can pay the company a financial retainer. Yes, the artist pays the company. The contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on, of course, but before the artist can realize this the scouts have already packed up and left town moving on to the next block of auditions, everybody's cash deep in their pocket. And to get an authentic feel for his film Zobel actually followed this same pattern, taking his cast and crew from town to town and advertising open auditions, not telling the performers that they were being filmed until after the fact. The cast is in on it, the would be singers are not.
It's smart, it's funny, and the fine people at Magnolia are putting it into theaters September 14th.
