California Schemin’

Based on a true story, this film is a wild trip into a world of ambition, identity and musical make-believe. After watching it, “Everyone is the architect of their own fate and the maker of their own fortune” sounds more like a line from a hard-hitting hip-hop track, because that is the creed followed in the directorial debut of Scottish actor James McAvoy by Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, members of the Scottish rap duo Silibil N' Brains. After record labels across London laugh the eager young men out of their offices because of their strong Scottish accents, the pair decide to rewrite the script of their lives completely. On their next phone call, their hometown is no longer windy Dundee but sunny, faraway Los Angeles. And lo and behold—before they have even had a chance to spin record executives their invented backstories in better-than-average American accents, the doors of the record labels open to them as if by magic. But how long can they keep up with their lies and their ever-faster pace of life? Most unbelievable of all? It is all based on a true story...