In one of those odd little film industry mini-zeitgeists that happen every now and then, UK cinemagoers are getting hit with two Scottish actor-turned-director debuts in as many weeks this April. Next week there’s the rather awful looking Glenrothan, which sees Brian Cox go behind the camera for the first time in his long career, but for now there’s a much livelier star-to-helmer transition from James McAvoy in the form of California Schemin’. It’s a zippy true story of musical fraud in the early 2000s that takes very few deviations from its genre trappings but has a compelling enough young cast to start McAvoy’s directorial career off on a gentle high.
Fittingly, McAvoy has chosen to start out with a tale of scrappy young Scots, Gavin (Seamus McLean Ross) and Billy (Samuel Bottomley), Dundee lads with a mind-numbing call-centre job and a passion for hip-hop that the world doesn’t want to hear, the very notion of Scottish rap never less than faintly embarrassing. Offended by their brisk dismissal at the hands of posho London music execs, the pair rebrand as Silibil N Brains, two Californians who have decided to come to the UK to shake up the British rap scene.
Having looked up the true story, this is a film that certainly takes some dramatic license in its retelling, but it is undeniably fun to watch Gavin and Billy research and riff their way into becoming convincing enough Americans to get signed by a record label (McAvoy himself takes on the role of the foul-mouthed CEO). From here, all the beats you expect come up in about the exact order you expect – the highs of success leading to drugs and infidelity, the original plan to come out live as Scots to humiliate the music industry postponed once they get a taste of actual success.
Elaine Gracey and Archie Thomson’s script is a bit ‘seen it all before’, at its best early on when it sows the seeds of discord between Gavin and Billy, best friends whose priorities diverge quickly. Billy – popular back home with a group of mates and lovingly supportive girlfriend Mary (Lucy Halliday) – is excited by the £35,000 signing fee but eager to give up the con, while Gavin – awkward in his own skin and bullied by a gang of Dundee teenagers – gets less and less interested in coming home with every passing day. It’s a conflict well played by the two leads – Bottomley in particular is fantastically charismatic as the less committed but more quick-witted of the pair.
McAvoy keeps things moving at a nice pace, his characters and camera rarely staying still for particularly long, while the bubbling horror of possible discovery adds a natural tension to all the musical moments. Again, if you’ve seen any rise-and-fall type music films before, you’re probably already seen most of what California Schemin’ has to offer, but it’s kept fun by a charming lead duo and the inherent ridiculousness of a Scottish man with a chinstrap beard calling himself ‘hip-hop’s resurrection’.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 