James McAvoy closed the Glasgow Film Festival this year with his directorial debut, CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’, an entertaining examination of Scottishness, authenticity, and creativity. Filmed around Dundee and Glasgow, it’s a fun film that is easy to compare to KNEECAP through their exploration of hip-hop from a Celtic perspective but unfortunately comes up looking a lot more formulaic by comparison.
CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ is based on the true story of Scottish hip-hop duo Silibil N’ Brains. Gavin (Séamus McLean Ross) and Billy (Samuel Bottomley) are rappers who are fed up with being dismissed by the record industry because they’re Scottish. After an unsuccessful audition in London where they’re literally laughed out of the audition room by posh English executives, Gavin calls a record label doing an American accent. He discovers that the novelty of being American is enough to open doors in the British music industry. With practised American accents and a fictional backstory of growing up in California, the two travel to London to find fame and fortune with their new identities and with a plan to expose the anti-Scottish prejudice in the music industry.
“The exploration of the ‘Scottish-ist’ British music industry is a fascinating angle even if the wider political themes are underdeveloped..”
McAvoy’s obvious affection for Scotland comes through in the film with a wonderful opening montage filmed around Dundee that highlights the rarely filmed beauty of the city. The exploration of the “Scottish-ist” British music industry is a fascinating angle even if the wider political themes are underdeveloped in favour of the personal journeys of Gavin and Billy as their star rises and, inevitably, falls. The film echoes TRAINSPOTTING’s famous line “It’s shite being Scottish” but doesn’t really interrogate English prejudice against Scottishness in any meaningful way and this isn’t helped by the two main characters’ lacking connection to Scotland later in the film. In the absence of any family or friends, Billy’s girlfriend, Mary (Lucy Halliday), serves as their main personal connection to their home and, while Halliday is very good in that role, it’s not enough to anchor the exploration of Scottishness.
Similarly, some allusions to anti-Blackness in UK record labels come through in the character of Tessa (Rebekah Murrell), an assistant at Neotone Records who discovers the two lads performing in a London club. She suffers under the tyrannical hand of music executive, Anthony Reid (James McAvoy), and during her ascent with the boys, she mentions the challenges of being a Black woman in this industry, but this thread is similarly underdeveloped.
“Ross and Bottomley give very authentic performances whether with Scottish or American accents…”
However, given the film’s focus on the personal story of the two young men at the heart of it, CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ succeeds in representing that journey through the strong performances of the two leads. Ross and Bottomley give very authentic performances whether with Scottish or American accents and there’s enough narrative weight given to both characters that both develop believably even as their paths through fame diverge. McAvoy also gives a wildly entertaining performance, channelling Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker as the sweary and impatient Scottish music label executive.
Comparison to KNEECAP seems inevitable since both films focus on hip-hop from a Celtic perspective. Where CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ follows two rappers from Scotland suffering from anti-Scottish prejudice in the UK, KNEECAP followed three rappers from the north of Ireland suffering from prejudice against the Irish language in the UK. CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ looks fairly generic next to the inventiveness of KNEECAP which had more interesting visuals and a deeper political bent to its exploration of language through rap. CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ has hints of greatness throughout its script but ultimately lands as a safe debut for James McAvoy that doesn’t dare to tread very far outside the formula for music biopic cinema.