New 97% rated movie based on ‘outrageous’ true story available to watch now

The comedy-drama has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score. Here are our thoughts on the film.

Directed by acclaimed actor James McAvoy (making his feature filmmaking debut), the biographical movie tells the story of rap duo Silibil N' Brains, who in the early 2000s seemed to have the world at their feet.

From the outside, they were two rappers from California, delivering catchy, crass rhymes (akin to the Beastie Boys and Eminem) in Valley-guy accents. They landed in London as part of a Euro trip and quickly signed a record deal. After this came singles, MTV appearances and the chance to open live for huge hip-hop acts like D12.

There was just one problem. Silibil N' Brains aren't from America. They are actually from Dundee, Scotland. Their real names are Billy Boyd (played in the film by Samuel Bottomley, Anemone) and Gavin Bain (played by Séamus McLean Ross, Outlander: Blood of My Blood), and record labels had previously rejected the pair because of their thick Scottish accents.

Telling the tale of how Boyd and Bain fooled the music industry, California Schemin' is a real crowdpleaser, perhaps evidenced by its 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Silibil N' Brains' stunt definitely deserved the big screen treatment, with the movie delivering equal amounts of laugh-out-loud comedy (as the pair fool arrogant and clueless A&Rs, who tell them their music is "just so real") and nerve-rattling tension (as to whether the rap duo can keep up the hoax).

The film is often predictable, taking easy (if always appropriate) shots at the superficiality of the pop music industry, which often prioritises how musicians look and their "narrative" over artistic skill.

California Schemin' also follows the beats of most movies about people going "undercover". The pair get too deep. The lies start to stack up. The allure of the new lifestyle and the fear of being exposed start to drive a wedge between them. And they make friends whose lives will be impacted negatively if the truth were to come out, making it even more difficult for them to come clean.

That said, you forgive this familiarity. It's often said that cliches become cliches because there is some truth in them. Silibil N' Brains did indeed happen, and a lot of what the rappers' experience, as depicted in the biopic, feels believable.

Making his feature filmmaking debut, McAvoy (who also gives himself a plum role as a scary record label head) keeps the energy levels high through vibrant direction. There's a hilarious montage, where we see Bain and Boyd perfect their American accents by binge-watching loads of US movies and TV, culminating in the duo repeating Ross' iconic line in Friends: "We were on a break!"

One feels the Scottish actor-turned-director putting his own stamp on the material. There's a lot in California Schemin' about national identity. Part of this feels baked into the true events. Bain and Boyd adopted their California identities because they found that Scottish hip-hop was not respected in London, with the pair even being dubbed the "rapping Proclaimers" amid auditions.

Yet, one wonders if a non-Scottish director could have captured California Schemin's clear love for Scottish people and their humour (even a supporting character like Billy's Dundee-based girlfriend Mary, played by a wonderful Lucy Halliday, is so likeable and given lots of time to shine), while not shying away from some of the social issues affecting the county and how the country has been perceived in the past by outsiders.

McAvoy manages to capture all this in one recurring image, a mural devoted to his past collaborator Danny Boyle's seminal Scottish flick Trainspotting, depicting Ewan McGregor's protagonist screaming: "It's shite being Scottish!"

Also, the screenplay by Elaine Gracie and Archie Thomson doesn't let Silibil N' Brains entirely off the hook either. While the movie sympathises with the duo, understanding why they did what they did, one character does note that they were very quick to take the shortcut of lying after a few failed auditions.

It all adds up to a fun, breezy romp, with actually something meaningful to say about art, the music industry and identity. We hope it's a hit and that McAvoy works behind the camera again.

California Schemin' is in cinemas now.