It’s not even on her IMDB page, or widely reported, but according to friends of friends and confirmed via the L.A. Film Fest site, Norah Jones will co-star in the upcoming indie film, “Wah Do Dem (What They Do),” about a young Brooklynite who makes a trip to Jamaica on his own after his girlfriend (Jones) dumps him.
Presumably, since that’s how the film kicks off, it’s a small role, but it is her first acting gig since taking on the lead role in Wong Kar-Wai’s English-language debut, “My Blueberry Nights” (which wasn’t entirely successful for a number of reasons).
Accepted into the upcoming L.A. Film Festival (which runs June 18-28), the site calls the film a “disarming and incisive debut feature,” by Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace. It looks like a pretty small, DIY film, but it does look interesting.
The film stars mostly relative-unknown actors, Brooklyn musician Sean Bones, mumblecore composer and actor Kevin Bewersdorf and Carl Bradshaw, who actually appeared in the reggae Jimmy Cliff film classic, “The Harder They Come” (if you’ve never seen this film, for shame…).
When Willow (Norah Jones) leaves Max (Sean Bones) high, dry and holding two cruise tickets to Jamaica, he has little choice but to ship out of his life in Brooklyn, whether he has shaped up or not. Wah Do Dem is a road-movie-comedy-of-errors driven by curve balls, the election of Barack Obama, and a thick roots-reggae rhythm section.
The soundtrack — or at least the rough soundtrack we’ve heard, it’s not 100% confirmed and cleared — is pretty great. What appears to be cleared are tracks by Suckers (“Afterthoughts & TV”), three dub reggae classics by John Holt, the Congos and Lloyd and Devon (“Ali Baba“, “Fisherman,” “Red Bumb Ball,”) and lead actor Sean Bones’s cool reggae-tinged instrumental (“Death Can Jam”). You can hear them all on the official website. We also heard a Norah Jones cover from the film a few months ago (can’t remember the track), but we’re not sure what happened with that yet.
Who doesn’t love John Holt’s “Ali Baba,” seriously and if not, what the hell is wrong with you?