The Plot:

Welsh dreamer Dixie moves to London with his loving girlfriend Shell to become the manager for a little known rock band The Premature Congratulations. Determined to turns them into the biggest thing since The Beatles Dixie faces all sorts of obstacles I his quest to become a great musical Svengali. Along the way he experiences the highs and lows of the music industry while being guided by real life Creation Records Guru Alan McGee and with an old school friend deliberately trying to stand in his way.

The Good:

Svengali is a film about the music industry so a great soundtrack was always utterly essential. While the audience never quite gets to hear mythical band The Prems ever actually play a proper song, we do hear a well assembled collection of songs from classic artists and fresh talents alike. The Stone Roses, Jake Bug, The Small aces and Mott The Hoople are just some of the musical magic the film offers. The superb quality of the soundtrack caries the film throughout and particularly keeps things watchable during any slower moments.

Writer and leading man Jonny Owen is so earnestly likeable that it’s impossible not to want his naïve hero Dixie to succeed in the face of a seemingly never ending string of disaster and financial woes. This Is England star Vicky McClure is an equally endearing and accomplished acting talent. The central relationship between Dixie and devoted girlfriend Shell provides a convincingly mundane and affectionate counterpoint to the harsh realities of the greedy underbelly of the music industry.

Svengali features a lot of familiar and very welcome faces. Sherlock star Martin Freeman clearly enjoys a comedy turn as a grumpy record shop owner with a nagging wife and eccentric Mod wardrobe. IT Crowd star Matt Berry and Morwenna Banks also both steal scenes as variously accented but equally hilarious caricatures of record label executives. Watching Berry’s implausibly dressed studio boss berate his grovelling flunkies with spectacularly apathetic disdain is a particular pleasure.

The presence of real life musical figures like Alan McGee and Carl Barat lends the film some deserved musical credibility, further supporting the accuracy of its amusing tale of explosive overnight indie band success.

The Bad:

It feels cruel to criticize Svengali as it does accomplish so much with such little budget and is evidently made with precisely the kind of unashamed enthusiasm that makes Dixie a likeable dreamer. Though the film does occasionally lag in pace, take predictable turns or fail to quite land laughs as big as it aspires to a note perfect soundtrack almost always rescues the situation.

Perhaps the only real problem the film faces is that the greedy cut throat side of the music industry is so well known that it makes the film’s seemingly accurate depiction feel unoriginal. In-fighting arrogant bands, vile A&R men and backstabbing betrayal are such a common feature of rock and roll films that it feels almost overly familiar.

It’s also fair to say that with the exception of Dixie many of the people he meets along his quest, including his own supposedly ‘amazing’ band, are unlikeable character with an assortment of loathsome selfish character traits. But then perhaps that’s the entire point of the film.

The Ugly Truth:

Svengali is a low budget indie comedy that boasts a surprising amount of familiar face and the best soundtracks it could possibly have assembled. After a slow heart it delivers enough heart and humour to carry itself to a satisfying if somewhat surprising conclusion.

Check out red carpet interviews with the cast and celeb guests from the Svengali London Premiere below: