Great World of Sound: Critic Reviews

Great World of Sound is about the chicanery that feeds off pinched wallets, but it's also a metaphorical satire of a music business so busy scavenging for sales it has forgotten its roots.

Nimble performers...lift Great World of Sound above its central gimmick, turning it into a subtle, funny and depressing observation of unspoken race and class tensions.

[Director] Zobel has an Altmanesque ear for the the way people talk, and he evokes Altman's loose style and cynical sensibility. The film deftly suggests that the tension between being famous and being broke can be illogical and very cruel.

A confident, sure-handed exercise focusing on the American Dream, turned nightmare.

Zobel ultimately comes down on the side of the suckers, whose need to make music -- even bad music -- gives them an unimpeachable dignity

Low-key but enormously charming pic.

The laughs flow.

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.

A movie about conscience that flatly refuses the catharsis and redemption a mainstream feature would demand, Great World of Sound is a dirty gem, shining despite the modesty of its production.

...an involving, offbeat and truly unusual American independent film.

Craig Zobel's soul-crushing docudrama slums in the real rags-to-rags tragedy of the lowest rung of the music industry.

Great World of Sound is a corrosive antidote to "American Idol."

The film's agenda becomes clear so early that the middle hour or so seems to be marking time until we get to the end.

It's evident early on that this is a scam, though the extent of the movie's con is surprising.

Displays all the trademarks of a true indie effort, especially in its refusal to sentimentalize either the characters or their situations.

Everybody's got a song to sing, and we'll all believe exactly what we want for just as long as we can.

Anyone who has enjoyed laughing at the bad singers auditioning on American Idol, consider the independent film Great World of Sound your penance.

The pros and cons of the film are in direct proportion to the personalities of the two main characters, whose relationship is the story's anchor.

Director Craig Zobel and co-writer George Smith imbue our two misfits with plenty of character depth and an intriguing camaraderie.

If there's justice it should move plenty of viewers-those aching to see a recognizable conscience behind our fashionable American idolatry.

A quiet, clever and sometimes moving film about an unusual grifting lifestyle.