James McAvoy has established himself as a reliable actor, whose credits have included The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Atonement and Split. Now he’s taking on his next challenge, behind the camera as director of California Schemin’, based on the incredible true story of how two Dundee lads took on the record industry. Based on a brilliant documentary called The Great Hip Hop Hoax, this dramatisation doesn’t have the same impact as the original story, but it does a fine job of telling a story that is so hard to believe.

Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd are two Scottish boys who are desperate to break into the music industry. When they get rejected from a record company and called “rapping Proclaimers”, they decide the only way to break the system is to pretend to be from California and to scam everyone in the industry that was so cruel to them.

It’s really hard to imagine how these two unlikely anti-heroes could come up with such a complex story and to keep the lies going until they were ready to be exposed, under their own terms. What they didn’t expect was to become such a success as Silibil N’ Brains. They had to live every moment of their days lying, from the backstory of their existence to maintaining a complicated accent that sometimes failed them, to covering when the lies faltered.

McAvoy does a decent job as director, trying to capture an era, the early 2000s, with the kind of camera work you’d expect during this time, along with the use of home movie stock, which the real Silibil N’ Brains used to document their journey. So the film can flow much more easily than trying to squeeze the five-year hoax into a feature, Elaine Gracie and Archie Thompson do take some dramatic liberties, which are moments that do let the film down slightly.

Slipping in a subplot about Billy’s relationship with Mary doesn’t seem to fit the narrative, as the boy’s whole life is a lie, yet she is the one part that isn’t, and it would be far too easy for those who are under attack from the rappers to investigate and discover the truth. What the boys did amounted to fraud, yet the film does its best to avoid the criminal implications and consequences. Instead, these two cheeky chappies are portrayed exactly as they are, with how much fun they are having with the scam and all it brings.

What the film does have are two very strong leads in Seamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley as Gavin and Billy. They exude energy and an infectious child-like sense of fun that allows the audience to accept the journey they are being taken on. Lucy Halliday as Mary also brings an air of sympathy as Billy’s long-suffering girlfriend. McAvoy also appears as the hard-nosed record executive who takes on the boys, convinced they will be the next big thing. A word of warning, however. James Corden appears as another music executive, and he basically plays himself.

California Schemin’ is a decent attempt to turn an unbelievable story into drama, and McAvoy does a very competent job; he could have a good future behind the camera. It’s a pity that there’s a superb documentary out there that covers the same story in much greater depth, without the added dramatic licence. If you don’t know the story, this works. If you know about The Great Hip Hop Hoax, you know just how good that film is.

3 out of 5

Director: James McAvoy

Starring: Seamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, James McAvoy, Lucy Halliday, Rebekah Murrell, Simon Poon Tip, Amber Anderson, James Cordon

Written by: Elaine Gracie, Archie Thompson, (based on the lives) Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd

Running Time: 107 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 10th April 2026