My Old School (2022 | UK | 104 minutes | Jono McLeod)
What if you found out you were going to school, and even best friends with, a complete stranger? That’s the oddly intriguing premise of this strange, winding documentary. A young man named Brandon Lee enrolled at Bearsden Academy, a secondary school in a ritzy suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. Over the course of the next year or so, he went from a nobody to the lead in the school play, everyone’s pal and the life of the party. Little did they know, he had a secret that would throw everyone he’d met there for a loop.
While you’re not quite sure where the film is going for the first 45 minutes, there’s a huge build up drawn from the perspective of several students who attended the school at the time, including the director of the film. I think that personal connection played a bigger role than it should have in the telling of the story and led to a gossipy feel rather than a re-enactment or dramatic storytelling. That being said, the cheeky way the classmates chatted to the camera and each other revealing rumors and heightening the drama made it feel like we were all back in high school again creating a universal appeal.
To make matters weirder actor Alan Cumming, who was supposed to play Brandon in a film when the scandal actually broke (but for reasons unknown was never finished), played Lee’s literal mouthpiece. The scandalous schoolmate in question didn’t want to show his face, but didn’t mind telling his story with his own voice. So to offer… something (I don’t know what) to the audience, the director decided to have the physical presence of Cumming mouth the words that Lee spoke. Why? I am a fan of Cumming, so I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth… but it was yet another quirky yet unnecessary addition to an already strange film.
To avoid spoilers, because there is quite a nasty twist that takes up the remaining hour of the film, I’ll just say that it went on for too long and a “you had to be there” vibe that kept viewers at arms length from the depth of betrayal felt by everyone involved. There are still a few questions left unanswered, but for the most part I found myself wondering when it would end rather than how it would end. Entertaining at least and rambling at best, I did enjoy the interesting physical mouthpiece aspect and wonder if that method will pop up in future re-enactments.
My Old School premiered on 1/23 in the Sundance Film Festival’s Feature section.