Film Review: 'California Schemin'' 

Authenticity and credibility are highly valued in music. Especially in hip hop. 

Yet many artists from that genre also adopt a stage persona that is some kind of augmented or amplified version of themselves. So, there’s a bit of fiction at play in that process. 

The question this film asks is what if there is a lot of fiction behind a musical act? Like a lot. In fact, what if your entire act is an act? If everything from your accent to your backstory is fabricated, could all that lying ever achieve something real?

The answer as presented by the directorial debut of famous Scottish actor James McAvoy is yes. 

You can indeed fake it til you make it. His case study concerns the actual exploits of a pair of Dundee based rappers Gavin and Billy, who were teeming with ambition and vocal ability back in the early 2000’s.

They initially rapped in their real accents and achieved a modest hometown following which encouraged them to attend an open audition in London. They headed off to the big city with stars in their eyes but returned home with their tails between their legs as snickering record executives eviscerated their act with the scarring putdown that no one wants the ‘rapping Proclaimers’.

Licking their wounds, Gavin and Billy were at a crossroads. But like the old Blues legend, they actually encounter the devil at this particular crossroads.

As depicted here, the boys tried to book gigs down South and discovered that doors opened when they assumed American accents. This notion takes root in Gavin in particular, who quickly envisages re-recording their songs with West Coast accents and returning to London posing as an American rap duo Silibil and Brains.

Needing to keep the pretence up 24/7, the pair base their new brogues on diction ripped from famous films and pop culture hits like ‘Friends’. They flesh out their fictional past lives by simply consulting an actual map to pick their bogus hometown in California. 

There’s no money to fund a research trip, so they are essentially winging it.

Yet all the posturing and posing and the music itself starts to gain traction. They are spotted at an open mic night by a talent scout who is willing to take a punt on them. Hilariously McAvoy and his writers rightly decide that the very same record execs who roundly dismissed them so viciously at the earlier open audition should be the ones fawning over their fake personas as the second coming.

Soon the pair are savouring being the toast of the town in a swirl of parties, drugs and booze. However, their rise also ups the inherent tension and strife within their white lie. Billy is keen to ‘come out’ to the industry as Scottish during their biggest TV appearance to date while Gavin doesn’t want to jeopardise their growing fame and their tantalisingly imminent success. 

Gavin clings on for dear life, but this was never really a very well thought out plan. Neither of them has considered even what a modicum of media exposure would mean for their real identities. Nor have they planned for playing the iconic Barrowlands in Glasgow. 

A homecoming that will surely bring things to a head for this unsustainably complex con job.

You will know James McAvoy from his appearances in the ‘X Men’ films and hits like ‘Split’, so it’s no surprise that he ekes terrific performances out of a cast who were universally unknown to me. 

Credit to McAvoy for returning to his roots and not resorting to his Rolodex to stock his first film with star names or cameos for the sake of it. He does grace his own film as a sharp-tongued and sharp-suited record boss who exudes grit and just a touch of menace.

Curiously, if you do want a second look at the same material, there is a documentary called ‘Hip Hop Hoax’ currently on Netflix that covers the same journey. 

I won’t compare and contrast them other than to say they are interesting interlocking companion pieces. Despite the relatively recent setting, this film is still a period piece. A simple internet search would expose the same attempted scam in a blink today.

Needless to say, the chaps behind ‘Kneecap’ only recently proved the breakout ability of genuinely authentic accents in rap, and their film was a pure blast of adrenaline too. 

What McAvoy would give for a flicker of that heat. He’s in the right ballpark with his inaugural effort but maybe he is someone who will find his true voice and vision as he goes on. Not every first album is a classic. Same goes for film.