First-time director Jono McLeod's documentary My Old School offers a delightfully compelling look back at the story of Brandon Lee, a young man McLeod himself went to school with, at Bearsden Academy, a highly sought-after high school in a posh suburb. from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1993. Lee turned out, to put it mildly, not exactly who he claimed to be. So there is poetic justice in having him "performed" on screen by Scottish actor, writer and singer Alan Cumming, who immaculately lip-synches him to audio recordings of the real Lee.
It's an extravagant, rarely used technique, notably displayed in Clio Bernard's equally insane document The Arbor. Here it makes sense in a story about acting and deception. The simply designed animation, inspired by the look of cool cartoons of the time, like Daria, adds extra comedic joy. You could say, to use a popular '90s slang term, this puts "mental" back to experimental, but in a good way.
Director: Jono McLeod
Writer: Jono McLeod
Stars: Alan Cumming, Dawn Steele, Lulu
These quirky comedic devices also help vary the texture since the story is essentially told through interviews with other classmates from the same year and the few teachers who remember what happened. We'll be coy about what happened at the end so as not to spoil the fun, though the story can easily be found online. It created a minor media scandal in the '90s when Lee's true identity was revealed.
Suffice it to say that on the first day of school in 1993, the children of Year 5 (the equivalent of the penultimate year in American high school terms) were surprised to be joined by a new boy who looked odd in some way, like if something was happening. either on his face or he was older than the other kids. He introduced himself as Brandon Lee, a name that was familiar to many children, as it was the same as the star of The Raven, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, who had recently been killed by a bullet. lost on set
This Brandon had a strong Canadian accent, and gradually everyone learned how his parents got divorced and his father worked in the diplomatic service in London. Like something out of a Victorian novel, Brandon's mother had been an opera singer who was tragically killed in a car accident. Brandon had come to live with his grandmother in Glasgow, in public housing on one of the most run-down streets in Bearsden, a neighborhood known as the area where Glasgow's professional elite lived.
Although shy at first, Brandon soon emerged as an academic star, especially in biology, which came in handy as he wanted to study medicine at the University of Dundee next. As they sit at small desks in contemporary classrooms, the Bearsden alumni interviewed here recall how once they met Brandon, he proved a good friend, wise beyond his years. Stefen, one of the only black students at the school, was frequently bullied and subjected to racist abuse, but began to feel more safe and accepted after the "all-around good guy" Brandon befriended him. Another boy, Brian MacKinnon, who would play a strange role in history when the truth came out years later, explains how Brandon took him under his wing as well. Brandon took him and his friend Donal to all kinds of punk and new wave bands like Joy Division, Television and Husker Du from a few years back, a sequence shown in animation and nimbly cut to the band's "Rip It Up." by Bearsden Orange Juice. ”, a twangy pop immortal from 1982.
While the interviewees seen on camera speak for themselves as the animation illustrates their narratives, the characters in the story who are now dead or who did not want to participate are seen in archive footage or the actors express their voices in the sequences cartoon. The voice cast includes Clare Grogan (a teen pop idol and star of Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl) and the single-named pop star Lulu, who voices the school's fierce vice principal. (She also contributes a rousey version of the Steely Dan song "My Old School," which plays over the end credits.) Such a selection again underlines the importance of music in the story, not only in terms of the melodies that children listen to in their bedrooms. but also a key moment in the story when Brandon is cast as the lead in the school production of South Pacific, especially since he already had an American accent.
Watch My Old School 2022 Movie Trailer
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