My Old School

Jono McLeod's wildly entertaining documentary My Old School has the feeling of an uproarious class reunion. Three decades have passed since Bearsden Academy’s 5C class – who count the director among their number – were embroiled in the mind-boggling shenanigans at the heart of the film, but when these talking heads get going, the memories, the old jokes and the deep-buried heartbreak all come flooding back.

The year is 1993, and a new, slightly strange kid named Brandon Lee has just arrived at this well-heeled suburb to the northwest of Glasgow, and is greeted with much suspicion from his classmates. It’s the setup for countless high school movies, from Heathers to Clueless, but there’s more to 5C’s reluctance to embrace the misfit newbie than simple clique culture.

McLeod keeps his cards close to his chest as he lays out this stranger-than-fiction tale, taking his time to tease out every twist and turn in Lee’s story while also playing along with Lee’s version of events for the majority of the runtime. Documentaries that withhold well-publicised and easily searchable information can be incredibly frustrating, and certainly anyone around in Scotland in the mid-90s will know some of what’s to follow. McLeod gets away with the subterfuge, however, by successfully making us feel like one of the gang. Like us, 5C know how their story ends but seem to be having such a whale of a time travelling back to their halcyon days that it would be churlish to be piqued by their faux naivety. 

That’s not to suggest that this story, as notorious and fabled as it is, doesn’t still have a few bombshells up its sleeve. Even those in the know might be surprised at just what a Zelig-like figure the oddball Lee becomes at Bearsden Academy. We hear how he took some of the school outcasts under his wing and helped shape the music tastes of others. One classmate gushes about how Lee convinced him to swap his 2 Unlimited tapes for Joy Division and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry records. This seemingly prodigious student became equally popular with the teachers – who come across as even more guileless than the teens. When Lee lands the lead in the school’s production of South Pacific, despite sounding like an injured goose and looking like… well, you’ll find out, your jaw will be on the floor and you might start to believe, as Lee does, that he possesses Jedi mind control. 

Lee gives his side of the story too, but only in audio form. Alan Cumming, who was once tapped to play Lee in a feature film, puts a face to his pre-recorded testimony. It’s an uncanny performance that manages to feel simultaneously camp and sincere all at once. A comic book-style animation modelled on 90s fave Daria and a voice cast that includes Clare Grogan and Lulu help bring the conflicting stories about Lee to life. 

By the end of this playful, Rashomon-style investigation of Lee’s story from everyone’s angle, there are still plenty of unanswered questions and holes to unpick. The film wryly reveals high school memories to be a curious thing: slippery, subjective and perhaps a little rose-tinted, given how warmly 5C recall their encounter with Lee.

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Released on 19 Aug by Dogwoof; certificate 15
GFT host a preview of My Old School on 16 Aug, followed by a Q&A with Alan Cumming and Jono McLeod