California Schemin’ review: Hilarity ensues in unbelievable true story
James McAvoy has carved out an impressive career as an actor, and now he’s trying his hand at directing his first feature, California Schemin’, based on a true story that hits very close to home for him.
Set in Dundee in 2003, the film tells the unbelievable true story of Billy Boyd (Samuel Bottomley) and Gavin Bain (Seamus McLean Ross) – known collectively as the Scottish rap duo Silibil N’ Brains. One day, they audition for a record label in London but get laughed out of the room, with one person dubbing them the “rapping Proclaimers”. Desperate to be taken seriously, they adopt American accents, make up a fake backstory and pretend to be Californian rappers. Their scheme works and they land a record deal!
So they achieve success based on a lie, and now they need to live the lie 24/7. Their newfound lifestyle isn’t real; they haven’t been accepted for who they really are, and they have to be their American alter egos all the time. They don’t mind this too much in the beginning – and keep pushing back their plan to come clean – because they are living the dream and revelling in their glory. But, as it always does, the novelty wears off after a while, and Billy, who has a girlfriend Mary (Lucy Halliday) back home, wants to stop pretending and be himself.
Bottomley and Ross are good individually and absolutely terrific together. They are so funny and bounce off each other brilliantly and seem like real friends. This film requires a lot – learning Silibil N’ Brains’ raps, speaking in both Scottish and American accents (Bottomley also uses a posh English accent too) and performing in front of large crowds – and they make it look so easy. They look like they’re having the best time and you feel the same watching them, especially during their entertaining rap scenes.
Their performances have a comedic register in the first half but become more dramatic in the second as they get everything they wanted and realise it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Ross’s Gavin has a particularly serious side. Gavin, who has always struggled with his mental health, likes being Brains full-time – he’s more confident, he loves the hedonistic lifestyle, and he’s very good at lying all the time. That puts him at odds with Billy, who liked his old life.
They have great support from the adorable Halliday, who is very supportive of their rap endeavour until they disappear and start new lives in London, and Rebekah Murrell as Tessa, a record label executive who stakes her career on the duo. McAvoy has a small role himself as a cutthroat, potty-mouthed record label boss and James Corden has a brilliant cameo appearance as a sleazy and very early 2000s music executive.
Based on Bain’s 2010 memoir of the same name and the 2013 documentary The Great Hip Hop Hoax, California Schemin’ is hilarious and an absolute delight. There are so many laugh-out-loud lines of dialogue and it has great energy. It loses a certain something when it becomes more serious in the second half, but even then, it’s still a gripping film based on an unbelievable true story.
In cinemas from Friday 10th April