By John Corrado
In his entertaining directorial debut California Schemin’, actor James McAvoy takes on the wild story of early-2000s rap duo Silibil N’ Brains, whose flash in the pan success was built on a lie.
Silibil and Brains were the stage names of Billy Boyd (Samuel Bottomley) and Gavin Bain (Séamus McLean Ross), two young guys from Dundee, Scotland. We first meet them in McAvoy’s film as call centre employees and aspiring rappers looking for a chance to prove themselves.
But they have their dreams dashed when they make their way to London, England for an open audition, only to get laughed at for their thick Scottish accents. So they decide to adopt American accents and rebrand themselves as California skater kids from Los Angeles, with a wild story about how they been backpacking through Europe.
They almost instantly find success, with their crude but witty rap lyrics positioning them as successors to Eminem. The plan is to get a record deal, land a spot on TV, and then reveal their true identities, exposing the “wankers” at the record company who mocked their Scottish brogues. But Gavin in particular is reluctant to give up the grift, while Billy is torn between keeping his newfound fame – and the sex and drugs that come with it – and his girlfriend Mary (Lucy Halliday) back in Scotland.
The film itself follows a pretty standard rise and fall narrative structure, and doesn’t really escape a lot of the biopic tropes. But the story of Silibil N’ Brains, which was already made into the 2013 documentary The Great Hip Hop Hoax, is one of those stranger than fiction tales that is a lot of fun to watch unfold, and McAvoy does a fine job of dramatizing it.
The film is held aloft by the energetic performances of Bottomley and Ross, who have to make us sympathize with these characters as young Scottish lads, while also believing their impersonations of American skater dudes. There’s a fun sequence early on where they learn to “sound American” by consuming copious amounts of pop culture from the era, crafting their accents around quotes from movies and TV shows.
Billy is the more grounded one, with Bottomley doing a nice job of playing him as a mostly well-meaning young guy who gets in over his head. This is matched by Gavin, who gets increasingly consumed by his new persona, to the point that he only wants to be called Brains. There is something a lot sadder at the centre of his desperate need for validation through fame, and his own internalized shame around his true Scottish identity, with Ross bringing shades of pathos to his increasingly intense portrayal.
These roles also require Bottomley and Ross to deliver a number of high energy musical performances, including a thrilling early sequence when their aliases take over a nightclub, first getting them noticed by talent scout Tessa (Rebekah Murrell). McAvoy himself also appears in a supporting role as Anthony Reid, the Scottish head of Neotone Records, who is fooled enough by their act to sign the duo.
As a film about Silibil N’ Brains, California Schemin’ does a good job of showing why so many were able to get swept up by their ruse when it first started in 2003, and why they themselves were so reluctant to give it up. It’s a decent directorial debut from McAvoy, and a pretty solid film about the lengths people will go to for fame and recognition. The music honestly kinda slaps too, even if it was presented under false pretences.
