MY OLD SCHOOL
★★★
OUT 19 AUGUST / CERT 15 / 105 MINS
DIRECTOR Jono McLeod
PARTICIPANTS Alan Cumming, Lulu, Clare Grogan, Joe McFadden
Headline-making deception lies at the heart of Jono McLeod’s mixed-media documentary. The film follows Brandon Lee, McLeod’s high-school peer, whose real identity shocks the world. Told via interviews with former students, Daria-style animation and a performance from Alan Cumming, who lip-syncs an interview with Lee, McLeod intricately presents the fabric of school life in the early ’90s, choosing to focus on the impact that Lee had on the people he met rather than any broader questions of his betrayal. Taking a light, comic tone distracts from the story’s power, as does the the sense of era nostalgia, but this is still a deeply personal and thorough study of a big event that rocked a small community irrevocably.