Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
No Result
View All Result
Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
Home Movie

James McAvoy’s Charming Directorial Bow

rmtsa by rmtsa
September 12, 2025
in Movie
0
James McAvoy’s Charming Directorial Bow
74
SHARES
1.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

Famed Japanese Critic Shiguehiko Hasumi Curates New York Showcase

/r/movies Giveaway – 300+ Free Tickets to a Special Pre-Screening of ‘Bugonia’ on Wednesday 10/22 in NYC & LA (AMC Lincoln Square & AMC The Grove)

Trailer For Apple TV+ Doc Series MR. SCORSESE About The Legendary Filmmaker — GeekTyrant

Back in the early 2000s, a pair of blue-eyed Scottish lads with dreams of becoming the next Eminem — but dismissed as sounding like “the rapping Proclaimers” — proceeded to pass themselves off as Southern California hip-hoppers, remarkably managing to pull off a hoax that gets them signed by a major record label.

It’s the stuff that episodes of VH1’s Behind the Music are made of, but in the talented hands of James McAvoy, making his directorial debut, those well-traveled, rise-and-fall tropes nevertheless make for an underdog dramatic comedy that proves hard to resist.

California Schemin’

The Bottom Line

A thoughtful charmer.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations)Cast: Seamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, Lucy Halliday, Rebekah Murrell, James McAvoyDirector: James McAvoyScreenwriters: Archie Thomson, Elaine Gracie
1 hour 47 minutes

With a charismatic cast headed by Seamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley, California Schemin’ is a nimbly paced yarn that may not have set out to reinvent the wheel, but makes for a buoyant excursion nonetheless. It wouldn’t be surprising for the film to emerge from TIFF, where it was handed its world premiere, securing a U.S. theatrical distribution deal.

Finding it tricky to establish hip-hop street cred when you’re two baby-faced kids from Dundee, rap duo Billy Boyd (Bottomley) and Gavin Bain (Ross), better known as Silibil N’ Brains, have been occupying their waking hours spitting bars with a decidedly Scottish brogue. Realizing they’re going to need to up their game if they have a shot of making it into the big leagues, they grab a map of California and proceed to create a fake backstory for themselves: They claim to hail from Hemet (!) after their first answer, “the projects of Beverly Hills,” fails to fool a record exec (James Corden) and they cobble together a semblance of an American accent studying movies like Jerry Maguire and The Usual Suspects.

“You actually sound American,” remarks Billy’s girlfriend, Mary (Lucy Halliday). “You sound, like, entitled!”

They take the rebooted Silibil N’ Brains for a test run at a club, where they capture the attention of a talent scout (Rebekah Murrell) for Neotone Records in England. A hotshot producer (McAvoy) agrees to sign the boys to a recording contract.

Initially the scheme is to drop their facade during a scheduled appearance on a popular MTV show where they would decry the industry’s “racism.” But Gavin, finding himself swept up by the more excessive trappings of their new lifestyle and growing resentful of Mary’s emotional tug on Billy, reneges on the deal, driving a widening wedge between them.

Taking its cues from Bain’s 2010 tell-all, Straight Outta Scotland, which in turn inspired the 2013 BBC Four documentary, The Great Hip Hop Hoax, their story held understandable attraction for McAvoy, himself no stranger to the concepts of authenticity and remaining true to oneself. Despite his hailing from Glasgow, over the course of his 30 years as a film actor there have only been a handful of times when he’s actually played Scottish characters.

Sharing a tangible feel for the characters and their working-class milieu, McAvoy demonstrates an unfussy sincerity in his directing approach, one that, especially before things take a darker turn in the second half, evokes the sort of easy charm found in the films of fellow Scotsman Bill Forsyth.

Given that the Silibil N’ Brains story played fast and loose with the truth, it should come as no surprise that the screenplay by Elaine Gracie and Archie Thomson obviously takes its own dramatic license. For example, their record deal was actually with Sony Music UK and their break-up happened years before the hoax was revealed; it was not the cause of the split, as depicted in the film.

At the end of the day, Bain and Boyd may have duped the public, but they didn’t have to hang their heads in Milli Vanilli shame. Fake accents aside, it was still their own voices doing the rapping. And while that 15-minutes-of-fame schematic might be an all-too-familiar tune, California Schemin’s ultimate success is all in the delivery.



Source link

Tags: BowCharmingDirectorialJamesMcAvoys
Share30Tweet19
rmtsa

rmtsa

Recommended For You

Famed Japanese Critic Shiguehiko Hasumi Curates New York Showcase

by rmtsa
October 3, 2025
0
Famed Japanese Critic Shiguehiko Hasumi Curates New York Showcase

At age 89, Shiguéhiko Hasumi, the critic and theorist long regarded as Japan’s greatest living film scholar, is finally making what amounts to his U.S. debut. Later this...

Read more

/r/movies Giveaway – 300+ Free Tickets to a Special Pre-Screening of ‘Bugonia’ on Wednesday 10/22 in NYC & LA (AMC Lincoln Square & AMC The Grove)

by rmtsa
October 3, 2025
0
/r/movies Giveaway – 300+ Free Tickets to a Special Pre-Screening of ‘Bugonia’ on Wednesday 10/22 in NYC & LA (AMC Lincoln Square & AMC The Grove)

Focus Features is offering r/movies (and other related communities) users over 300 free tickets to a special advanced screening of Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia, ahead of its regular release....

Read more

Trailer For Apple TV+ Doc Series MR. SCORSESE About The Legendary Filmmaker — GeekTyrant

by rmtsa
October 3, 2025
0
Trailer For Apple TV+ Doc Series MR. SCORSESE About The Legendary Filmmaker — GeekTyrant

Apple TV+ has dropped the official trailer for its upcoming 5-part documentary series Mr. Scorsese, and it looks like an essential watch for film lovers. Coming from award-winning...

Read more

The Surprising MCU History Between Kang and Doctor Doom

by rmtsa
October 2, 2025
0
The Surprising MCU History Between Kang and Doctor Doom

Before it was called Avengers: Doomsday, the next Avengers movie was going to be called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. (Hopefully by now you don’t need us to explain the name...

Read more

New Netflix Western TV Show The Abandons Gets Release Date & Photos

by rmtsa
October 2, 2025
0
New Netflix Western TV Show The Abandons Gets Release Date & Photos

Netflix has announced the release date for The Abandons, its newest Western action drama, which hails from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. In addition, the streaming platform...

Read more
Next Post
Person of Interest in Charlie Kirk Assassination Seen in New Shocking Video

Person of Interest in Charlie Kirk Assassination Seen in New Shocking Video

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized

CATEGORIES

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
No Result
View All Result

Recent News

  • Elizabeth Hurley Crowned ‘The Queen of MILFs’ In Bold Black Bikini Snap
  • Cassie Pens Chilling Letter Ahead Of Sean Combs Sentencing
  • Famed Japanese Critic Shiguehiko Hasumi Curates New York Showcase

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In