FILM REVIEW: MY OLD SCHOOL (2022) DIR. JONO MCLEOD
Theatrical one-sheet for MY OLD SCHOOL, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Written by Belle McIntyre
There is a hint of Rashomon in this strange and compelling story which is fact-based and caused a huge kerfuffle when the story of Brandon Lee, a former student of Beardson Academy in an upscale suburb of Glasgow, is unmasked as an imposter. The director of the documentary is certainly the right person for the job as he was a classmate of “Brandon Lee”. We are alerted at the start that there will be shocking truths revealed by the protagonist himself, who submits an audio tape recording, yet who refuses to be seen on screen. He is represented by Alan Cummings who flawlessly lip-syncs his words on camera.
The story that Brandon tells is about his two years in 1993 at Beardson. His story, that his father was deceased and that he had been living in Canada with his mother, an opera singer is uncorroborated. He lived in a house in the down-scale section of Beardson with a woman he claimed was his grandmother. The fact that he was slightly odd looking for a boy of 16 was soon forgotten as he made friends and was kind, funny and popular. He graduated early and enrolled in medical school. When he finally gets busted by the authorities, it is on account of his double passports which turn up on a holiday with some classmates. The facts reveal “Brandon’s” actual name and birth date which makes him 32 at the time. It is quite a scandal, but hardly criminal, and victimless. Unless bewilderment is considered a personal injury.
Alan Cumming in MY OLD SCHOOL, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
As the backstory unfolds, the school sections are presented in period-appropriate animation which is very effective and often quite funny. Yet again, we are given evidence that truth can be stranger than fiction. It was a pretty elaborate hoax including a fake grandmother. It is a credit to how much he was determined to be a physician. It is easy to have empathy for the brains and talent which are being thwarted and driving him to such desperate measures The fact of falsifying his identity has arguably ruined his life and career.
The final layer of this idiosyncratic story is told through the eyes of some of Brandon’s friends as interviewed 25 school years later. Unsurprisingly, they have competing memories of some of the same events and varied responses to the fact of being lied to. The shifts in points of view keep things interesting and provide original ways of presenting the facts and ambiguities of this. It is very balanced in not putting “Brandon” on trial. There are unanswered questions still. I suspect all of those who knew “Brandon” are bandying that factoid around at cocktail parties in Glasgow. It is a provocative, mildly disturbing, and charming story.
A scene from MY OLD SCHOOL, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
