My Old School

Jono McLeod's 2022 Scottish documentary tells the story of Brandon Lee, who enrolled at a school near Glasgow in 1993. The student appeared to be sixteen; he was in fact thirty-two, and was Brian MacKinnon, who had attended the same school years before. MacKinnon agreed to be interviewed but would not appear on camera, so Alan Cumming takes his place, lip syncing to his voice, and that strange solution gives the film its identity. The director was in that class, and his former classmates speak. The story starts funny and arrives somewhere uncomfortable about why the man did it. Who it's for: viewers who like formally unusual documentaries and true stories of deception. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a detached account, or who will find the mixture of reconstruction distracting.