Wonderful character development!

Beautiful, moving film.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

SVENGALI tales a straightforward tale of a would-be band manager Dixie (Jonny Owen) traveling up from his home in the Welsh valleys to manage a band. The band achieved a certain notoriety (pace the Sex Pistols) and secure a BBC recording session as well as numerous offers of recording contracts. Dixie tries his best to keep them under control, but finds the strain too much and eventually returns home with his girlfriend Shell (Vicky McClure). This film is very much a one-person show: Owen not only stars in it, but wrote the script and produced it. Director John Hardwick keeps the action going at a brisk pace, and there is some atmospheric cinematography by Catherine Derry, contrasting the lonely Welsh and Scottish rural locations with the urban squalor of central London. The film makes some trenchant points about the difficulties of surviving in the Smoke, especially when Dixie and Shell have to deal with a formidable central European landlady (Katy Brand). There are some memorable cameos by Martin Freeman as a record-shop owner and Maxine Peake as his long-suffering spouse desperately trying to prevent her husband from losing his temper. The story is a familiar one, but Owen turns in a winning central performance as Dixie: after what he experiences in trying to keep the band together, as well as dealing with a series of rapacious characters including loan-shark Teddy (Eddie Webber) and vamp Natasha (Natasha O'Keeffe), it's not surprising that he wants to return to the comparative security of home. In his final film before his untimely death, Brian Hibbard turns in a memorable cameo as Dixie's Dad; the scene where father and son talk to one another on a wind-swept Welsh mountain is particularly affecting.

The movie is a comedy centered around a young Welsh guy who comes to London to became a band manager. Despite of his bad luck, the band will encounter an unexpected success. The story itself is not particularly original and we aren't faced with a masterpiece of cinema, but I found this movie brilliant. It made me laugh several times and found it absolutely amusing. The soundtrack is astonishing, there are a lot of British bands that I love. Martin Freeman, a real Mod in life, in the role of ....a real Mod is ingenious! Also Alan McGee who plays himself it's a fantastic idea. I repeat: the movie is not a masterpiece, but it's just a fun comedy that those who are familiar with British music and culture will appreciate. Personally, I loved it.

The story of bands "making it" is always interesting, though this movie is more quirky than dramatic or inspiring of course since it is fictional. The "Svengali" in this story is a socially awkward weirdo with a dream of representing a promising band, which is a somewhat easy way of setting up a comedy, though the character is sympathetic enough, and his banter with his girlfriend is amusing. It's not really clear if he has any ability nor if the band does so the movie really comes down to the character's development. But instead of the oddball finding strength, he finds weakness, basically degenerating into a little boy who wants a mommy. I suppose this is a something of a twist, and the sappiness may appeal to some, but it's particularly pathetic variation on the theme of the Weak British Male.

I was a bit apprehensive at first when I first heard Jonny was making a film centered around a Welshman from the valleys going to the big-smoke, as Welsh people have been characterized mainly in mainstream media in a cringe-worthy stereotypical manner. It was nice, then, to see it made from the perspective of someone Welsh, from my hometown specifically, and he pulled it off so well. To the story itself, its not exactly There Will Be Blood, but it will provide you with plenty of laughs and even an insight to Mod culture. How refreshing to see Mod culture in a film other than Quadrophenia like! Although there were a couple of occasions where the action felt a bit too sitcom-esque, that is being a petty as the film was faultless really. The acting was great - Vicky McClure really is a talent - the soundtrack superb, beautifully shot on occasions and a fitting ending.Couldn't recommend it more. Have a gander