Absolutely nuts: My Old School reviewed

My Old School is a documentary exploring a true story that would have to be true as it’s too preposterous – it is absolutely nuts – for any screenwriter to have made it up.

It’s the story of Brandon Lee, who was 16 when he enrolled as a new student to a secondary school in the Glasgow area in 1993. Or is it: was this new boy a 16-year-old called Brandon Lee? And now I’m in a pickle. If I say more it’s a spoiler. The film plays its cards close to its chest until the 45-minute mark. You know something is up but not what and if you’re coming to it fresh your jaw will hit the floor. But it was a big media story at the time, so many might remember, plus other reviews haven’t been at all discreet. It’s a dilemma. Tell you what, I’ll keep shtum but in return you have to promise not to Google it, not even indirectly, as that will deliver in spades. This seems a fair deal.

It is written and directed by Jono McLeod, now a filmmaker, who attended the school, Bearsden Academy, at the time, hence My Old School. Over the years, he has said, there have been many plans to turn the story into a film but nothing ever happened so it was a case of, OK, I’ll do it myself. Lee, as I’ll call him, agreed to an interview but with the proviso that he didn’t appear on screen so his voice is lip-synced, seamlessly, by Alan Cumming. Elsewhere, McLeod interviews his former teachers and his former classmates as they remember (and also misremember), while flashbacks to their schooldays are shown in jolly, brightly coloured animations voiced by the likes of Clare Grogan and, for some reason, Lulu.

When Brandon Lee arrived at the school in the fifth year everyone clocked him as weird. He carried a briefcase instead of a backpack. He had big curly hair and an odd accent. He had the same name as the son of Bruce Lee. That is, the Brandon Lee who had been killed on a film set just a couple of months earlier. And he looked strangely mature, ‘like a student teacher’, with almost a mask-like countenance, but the way he explained it his mother had been a Canadian opera singer, they’d been involved in a car crash, she had died and he’d survived, so maybe he’d had reconstructive surgery?

Even if you are aware of the story, as I was, you’ll still be wondering: how did he fool everybody? How could they not know? He could drive a car! He liked Chardonnay! He introduced his classmates to retro music! Plus he was an aspiring medical student who showed genius levels of knowledge in the classroom. But no one questioned any of it, which shows, I think, how easily we take people at face value, and on top of that Lee was brilliant at explaining himself away. You know that in Canada you can get a driving licence at a much younger age than in the UK, right?

Even after the film reveals its central secret there are still many twists and turns: was his hair really that curly? Should he have been recognised? His grandmother: what was going on there? McLeod keeps you in suspense by doling out information bit by bit. There is archival footage – oh Lord, the school production of South Pacific in which Lee starred – but it doesn’t arrive until quite late in the day so you do have to be patient. (That’s what he actually looked like! Finally!) The film is wildly entertaining but it’s constructed to amuse rather than plumb any significant depths.

There is something tragic and disturbed at the heart of this tale but that is never investigated. Was there a particular trauma? Did Lee have any honest relationships in his life? Has he since? He rose up the school’s social hierarchy, became popular and made friends – in particular, Stefan; watch out for him – but does he feel he betrayed them? He is allowed to talk yet never reveals himself. Still, you will enjoy the ride.