My Old School

Jono McLeod’s offbeat documentary recalls a 1990s’ scandal in suburban Glasgow but, in spite of its adventurous approach, proves largely ineffective.

A number of critics are, I believe, too ready to distain documentaries which, however good, adopt a traditional approach. For them this work by Jono McLeod must have been an exciting prospect. Referring back to events that occurred in 1993 at Bearsden Academy, a secondary school in Glasgow, it concerns itself with what happened following the enrolment there of a 16-year-old newcomer, Brandon Lee. Although he is absolutely the central figure in My Old School, he refused to allow himself to be filmed despite giving McLeod permission to use his words as recorded on audiotape. Consequently, the actor Alan Cumming has been brought in as somebody who is seen while lip-syncing what had been said on the tape.

If that is a relative novelty in itself (it follows such works as Clio Barnard’s The Arbor made in 2010), that is far from being the only unusual aspect involved. The events recalled are dramatised in animated scenes using a voice cast and these contribute substantially to the film. But they share the screen with images in which others, many of them fellow pupils of Brandon Lee including Jono McLeod himself, remember those days and discuss what happened afterwards. But not even this footage is handled in a conventional way because the director has chosen to have them photographed on a set which is a reconstruction of the old classroom, the school itself no longer being in existence.

To my mind this mix of styles, however intriguing, does not work well. Recently the brilliant Flee used animation to portray dramatic real-life events but did so with sufficient consistency for viewers to respond emotionally to the main narrative as though it were a realistic rather than a stylised presentation. But here, due to frequent intercutting between the many animated sequences and shots of the reminiscing adults, there is an inherent conflict of style. Furthermore, we are not allowed to forget that the words of the central figure are being presented through an actor since McLeod chooses to edit those scenes to incorporate varied angles including close-ups of Cumming’s mouth.

But, if the approach is adventurous but often misguided, the basic problem with My Old School lies in the material itself. In the opening minutes we learn that what Brandon Lee did was something that appealed to him because it was in the category of the unimaginable. There is talk too of a hoax and of his leading a double life. It is even mentioned that Brandon Lee looks significantly older than his sixteen years. There is quite enough here for the audience to recognise from the start that the story which unfolds in My Old School will in time feature a revelation.

However, when it comes to a documentary about things not being what they seem to be, one cannot avoid thinking of Tim Wardle’s acclaimed 2018 piece, Three Identical Strangers. That film was brilliantly organised so as to reveal its truths in a narrative that devastated the audience by leading to twist after twist. By comparison, My Old School really has but a single twist and one that many viewers will have twigged long before it comes into the open. Thereafter, there is some speculation about it all, not least regarding the role played by Brandon Lee's mother, but it amounts to very little – so much so that some audiences will find that the film’s evocation of school life in the 1990s right down to a school staging of the musical South Pacific is the most interesting element. That's not to deny that Brandon Lee’s story was a very curious one indeed, but its suitability as the basis of a feature-length documentary feels very much open to question. It's only a slight overstatement to say that Jono McLeod’s film comes over as much ado about nothing.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Alan Cumming, and the voices of Dawn Steele, Lulu, Clare Grogan, Joe McFadden, Gary Lamont, Juliet Cadzow, Carly McKinnon, Michele Gallagher, Wam Siluka Jr, Camilla Kerslake.

Dir Jono McLeod, Pro John Archer and Livia Lichtenstein, Screenplay Jono McLeod, Ph George Geddes, Pro Des Jamie MacWilliam, Ed Berny McGurk and Jono McLeod, Music Shelly Poole, Animation Rory Lowe.

Hopscotch Films/Creative Scotland-Dogwoof Pictures.
104 mins. UK. 2022. US Rel: 22 July 2022. UK Rel: 19 August 2022. Cert. 15.