Benny & Jolene

This slight comedy follows the fortunes of a winsome teenage indie folk duo (Craig Roberts and Charlotte Ritchie), catapulted into the spotlight when their debut single becomes a surprise chart-topper. Surrounded by inept management, pushy parents and media hangers-on, the pair struggle with newfound celebrity and their true feelings for each other. The improvised "mockumentary" style of writer/director Jamie Adams's film makes comparisons to This Is Spinal Tap inevitable, but whereas that comedy classic took glee in twisting a knife through the heart of heavy metal's pomposity, here the parodying of the superficial music industry rarely convinces, as one lazy stereotype after another is wheeled out. Ritchie plays the willowy singer as a variation of the go-getter character she portrays in TV's Fresh Meat, but the best lines, though few and far between, are delivered by Dolly Wells as Jolene's neurotic mother and Rosamund Hanson as a clueless PR.