Alan Cumming

Clare Grogan

Lulu

Dawn Steele

Joseph McFadden

Gary Lamont

Juliet Cadzow

Michele Gallagher

Wam Siluka Jr.

Natalie McConnon

Camilla Kerslake

Brian O’Sullivan

Carly McKinnon

David Tattoo Dave McKinlay

Jono McLeod

John Archer

Olivia Lichtenstein

Mark Thomas

George Geddes

Berny McGurk

Shelly Poole

Mhairi Valentine

Phil Mews

Jamie MacWilliam

Remo Catani

Damien Leitch

Bruce Carmichael

Finlay McLay

Layla Mall

Caroline Hamilton

Jo Mcauliffe

Jade Nicholl

Lisa Higgins

Jonathon McLoone

David McKeitch

Kevin Robertson

David Cameron Newbigging

Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Derek Gereg

Jon Bruce

Lewis Carmichael

John Cobban

Heather Andrews

Stewart Simpson

Zander Mavor

Scott Bilsbrough

Fatma Hegazy

Gemma Dempsey

Documentary

Animation

My Old School

Hopscotch Films

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

I will admit to having been brought up a stone's throw from Bearsden (a well-off suburb of Glasgow in Scotland) though some years before this actually took place. The story is all about "Brandon Lee" - portrayed here by Alan Cumming. He rather famously enrolled at a school and passed for a 16 year old pupil, fairly effortlessly, until a series of unfortunate mishaps lead to a rather startling discovery and a tissue of lies and deceit. Aside from a little illuminating actuality at the end, it is largely delivered to us by way of commentaries from the man's contemporaries - now in their forties - describing the fascinating chronology of just what happened. Some of these contributions are superbly pithy. Beware there is plenty of ripe Glasgow vernacular, but it's never gratuitous - indeed, for much of this film it is more emanating from the increasingly incredulous narrative as many of his school mates find out the truth for the first time since 1993. It tries to explain just how incompetent the vetting system at the school was (though the truth being stranger than fiction element of the behaviour of "Lee" probably mitigates that a little) and it works really well. I think my favourite observation has to come from the tattooed "Dave McKinley" who in one short sentence summed up the whole scenario... It certainly helps if you are local, but nonetheless, this is a well constructed, paced and frankly quite fascinating drama documentary that features the actors (and their voices) but sparingly. It's left to his colleagues to provide the narrative, and alongside some engaging animation I found it really quite entertaining.

English

My Old School filmmakers Alan Cumming, Lulu and Clare Grogan talk about the Brian MacKinnon story

Jono McLeod on My Old School

My Old School | Dir. Jono McLeod Interview

My Old School - First Day of School Clip | Alan Cumming

Official Trailer

My Old School

Where to watch

Cast

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