Despite its story being based on a convoluted deception, there is something bizarrely innocent about the true story of Scotland’s ‘teenage’ trickster Brandon Lee. Presented with gentle allure this documentary/animation hybrid strikes just the rights chords as it balances teenage charm with genial irreverence.
For a whole year back in 1993 a new student named Brandon Lee, claiming to be aged 17 and from Canada, enrolled as a fifth year student at Bearsden Academy close to Glasgow. Amongst the classmates who accepted this rather older-looking student was director McLeod who admits – alongside a whole bunch of classmates that he interviews – that he was fooled by Lee.
The story’s twist – as has been much-reported over the years – is that Brandon Lee turned out to be a 30 year-old man named Brian MacKinnon, who used his time at the school to improve his A-grades and secure a place at Dundee University’s medical school – all before his double-life was eventually revealed and his plans of following a calling to be a doctor fell to pieces.
McLeod’s film is a mixture of styles and tones, largely brought on by necessity. MacKinnon agreed to be interviewed, but for audio and not video. Step up Scottish actor Alan Cumming who wonderfully lip-synchs from an audio track, with dialogue set alongside archival footage, interviews with schoolmates and evocative and playful animation. All of this is backed up by a frothy 1990s sound track which helps reflect the perhaps more innocent time.
When Brandon Lee arrived at the school he told schoolmates that he lived with his grandmother, and that his opera-singing mother had died in a car crash. At school it was deemed a little odd he had the same name of the recently deceased film star, but he was gradually accepted, despite being a little weird-looking and stand-offish, and sporting a leather satchel rather than the obligatory backpack.
McLeod interviews his fellow schoolmates in a classroom as they playfully remember the strange new arrival, engagingly set alongside Cumming’s warm performance as MacKinnon recalling his early days back at school. Cumming’s casting is infused with irony given that he was poised to play MacKinnon in a feature drama that fell apart some years back.
MacKinnon spent two years at Bearsden Academy, impressing teachers with his knowledge; bonding with some pupils about music and homework (including one who even had the same name as him) and even being roped into starring in a school production of South Pacific as Joe Cable, who – in one of the film’s few uncomfortable moments which is recorded on an old video – has to kiss a young classmate playing Liat. Watching the video of the kiss, the teenager playing Liat stresses there were “nae tongues”!
There are more than a few twists – such as debate and rumour about how MacKinnon was finally revealed, and the fact that his grandmother actually turned out to be his mother – but there is an underlying sense that MacKinnon is a sad figure, frustrated about lost opportunities and still desperate to prove himself in the world of medicine.
The fact that McLeod has an insiders perspective to the story helps give My Old School a genial sense of insight, and the feeling of school reunion as much as the fascinating story itself helps keeps things breezy and often amusing. As well as featuring Cummings, voices for the animation are provided the likes of Clare Grogan and Lulu (who also sings Steely Dan’s My Old School over the closing credits) that helps reinforce the 1990s ambience.
My Old School premiered at Sundance and screened recently at the Glasgow and Dublin Film Festivals.
UK, 2022, 104mins
Dir/scr Jono McLeod
Production Hopscotch Films
International sales Dogwoof
Producers John Archer, Olivia Lichtenstein
Cinematography George Geddes
Editor Berny McGurk
Music Shelly Poole
Animation director Rory Lowe
With Alan Cummings, Clare Grogan, Lulu, Juliet Cadzow, Michelle Gallagher
