Mysterious and unusual
As the fifth year students of Bearsden Academy were still talking about the fresh death of Bruce Lee’s son, actor Brandon Lee, in walks a different Brandon Lee, and what began that morning as a coincidence-of-name grew into a strange web of lies that captivated a country.
The mystery of Brandon Lee begins with the opening words: ‘The subject of this film does not want to show his face.’ Why? What are we about to watch? The blurb in the Adelaide Film Festival guide wasn’t giving anything away, only that My Old School is a hybrid documentary, the form buzz-building in itself. The hybridised documentary style of filmmaking flings open doors to Avant Garde storytelling by mixing live footage and talking heads with the likes of animation or actors lip-synching the real-life characters’ words, both of which are used in Jono McLeod’s first cinematic feature.
To tell this fabulist story of false identity and absurd obsession, McLeod returns to his old school, Bearsden Academy in the posh part of Glasgow, to interview former classmates about their memories of the infamous alumni Brandon Lee. Lee was a strange fellow from the moment he walked into the classroom full of sixteen-year-old students, that much seems agreed upon, and as the year progressed he was also well-liked by his cohort and proved to be a star student among teachers. To mirror the time it took to discover Lee’s deception, McLeod is careful to not give Lee’s story away too early, but I question the effectiveness of the build-up.
Without giving anything away about this bizarre story myself – and it is definitely a story worth mining, having caused a media frenzy when Lee’s true identity was discovered in 1995 – as soon as the a-ha moment hits, the film becomes more interesting, so would it have benefited from an upfront onset? Not so thrilling is the stagnant set of the schoolroom desks where the now-adults retell the story as they remember, which seems a missed opportunity for Lee’s classmates to walk around the Bearsden grounds and their old haunts. Movement, indeed, is action, and this film feels slightly monotone, aside from the cartoon re-enactment. But to cast Alan Cumming as the talking head of the audacious yet unassuming Brandon Lee, given that the Scottish actor was set to direct and star in a dramatization of the story in the 90s but the film never eventuated, is a brilliant move. Having waited decades to explore the hoax, Cumming doesn’t miss a beat, performing Lee’s own telling through lip synch.
My Old School screens as part of the Adelaide Film Festival.
Click here for further information and to book tickets.
Reviewed by Heather Taylor-Johnson
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