In the mid 2000s, American duo Silibil N’ Brains were the next big thing in rap. The only problem? They weren’t actually American. Instead, Gavin “Brains McLoud” Bain and Billy “Silibil” Boyd both hailed from Dundee, the fourth-largest city in Scotland, and were pretending to be from California in an attempt to make it big in an industry that disregarded them because they were Scottish. It was a hip hop hoax that got them far, even supporting D12 at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom. And now their story is the inspiration for California Schemin’, which is also the directorial debut for Scottish actor James McAvoy.
It’s 2003, and Gavin (Séamus McLean Ross) is phoning record companies, trying to get his and Billy’s (Samuel Bottomley) demo tape out there whilst the pair work at a call center. However, when they get their chance at an open audition, their thick Scottish accents hold them back. The record execs even deride them as “rapping Proclaimers.” Meanwhile, Billy is adept at changing accents on a dime at the call center — in his words, “you’ve always got to give the customer what they want to hear.” And that gives Gavin a brainwave: why don’t the duo pretend to be from Hemet, California? And it works, as Silibil N’ Brains get their record deal thanks to the label that initially rejected them (led by a fearsome exec played by McAvoy). The plan is for them to reveal their ruse when they appear on MTV, exposing the vapid music industry in the process. But as their fake identities quickly rocket them to fame, the desire to stay at the top leads to lies that soon spiral out of control.
California Schemin’ bills itself as being “Based on a True Lie,” which is both accurate and a winking way to play off its music biopic leanings (more on that later). It’s also based on Bain’s 2010 memoir of the same name, as well as a 2013 documentary called The Great Hip Hop Hoax. If you’re familiar with either work, you will know that California Schemin’ is very much a dramatization. If not, then the story of two lads faking it ‘til they make it — and trying not to be revealed as frauds — will prove to be both remarkably outlandish and suitably engaging. For McAvoy, who has surprisingly not played too many Scots in his long career, his directorial debut gives him the chance to celebrate Scottish voices whilst touching on biases against Scotland from the South of England. It’s notable, for instance, that Billy and Gavin’s initial audition takes place in London, and that the two execs who so brutally reject them are southern. Additionally, British rap has developed since Silibil N’ Brains’ peak (in particular, EsDeeKid gets to rap in his heavy Liverpool accent). But in the 2000s, it was image over everything. Record companies wanted “authenticity,” — i.e., American street culture — and Billy and Gavin just gave them what they wanted to hear, challenging the system in the process.
If there’s something to California Schemin’ that lifts it from the merely serviceable, it’s the film’s character work — and in this suggest, one glimpses that McAvoy might be a good actor’s director. Bottomley (who is actually from Bradford in the North of England) is chameleon-like — particularly with his accent work — as his Billy becomes more unsure about the whole enterprise, increasingly unmoored from his own ambition. Yet it’s Ross who truly stands out. His layered performance finds him balancing Gavin’s early introversion and wounded puppy dog looks with with an encroaching graveness as he tries to protect his newfound fame — Gavin is the one dreaming big, which means he is desperate to cling to that dream in any way he can. And crucially supporting this central duo is Lucy Halliday (previously great in Blue Jean) delivering charged work as Billy’s girlfriend Mary, who is in on the hoax initially but soon tries to bring the duo back down to Earth.
But despite the fine acting work, there is little to distinguish California Schemin‘. Superficially, the film that it’s most immediately reminiscent of is Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt’s entertainingly irreverent film about the eponymous rap trio from Belfast, Northern Ireland. After all, both are music biopics about white rap groups from the British Isles that tackled national identity in some form. But the key difference is that Kneecap had an anarchic, unruly style that mirrored its subjects perfectly while also managing to disguise the fact that at its core it remained a biopic of the group’s come-up story. In California Schemin’, the script (courtesy of Elaine Gracie and Archie Thomson) falls more squarely into standard music biopic trappings: the rise-and-fall narrative arc; a final act that deal in retribution (of sorts); scenes that capture the pressure of fame, as well as the people close to artists being neglected at the altar of dreams; there’s even a dose of addiction to explore, too. it’s all there. And aside from some home video-style footage and a couple of split diopters, McAvoy offers very little visual panache, or even character. The sum result is that California Schemin’ settles into a place of pat predictability, never as buoyant or rip-roaring as a tale like this should be.
DIRECTOR: James McAvoy; CAST: Séamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, Lucy Halliday, Rebekah Murrell, James McAvoy; DISTRIBUTOR: Magenta Light Studios; IN THEATERS: October 9; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 47 min.
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