My Old School

Jono McLeod’s documentary about the ‘Peter Pan of Bearsden Academy’ is hilarious and oddly heart-warming.

Some stories are too insane to be made up, some are too unbelievable to pass as fiction. One particular story from 1995 is so bizarre that you find yourself laughing aloud as each foreshadowing quote and coincidence is recounted, as each twist and turn is revealed. Jono McLeod’s My Old School is a documentary that tells the story of how Brian MacKinnon, a 32-year-old Glaswegian man, returned to his former high school 15 years after graduating and re-enrolled as a 5th year student, posing as a 17-year-old Canadian expat who has returned to Scotland to live with his gran.

Yes, I know. It can’t be true. Wasn’t the sight of a 32-year-old adult in school uniform enough to alert suspicion? Didn’t the 40 teachers still at the school who were working at Bearsden Academy during this imposter’s first stint not recognise him? Apparently not, because it is true.

As Bearsden Academy’s 5th year pupils return from their summer break for a crucial year of Higher exams and university applications, new student Brandon Lee arrives looking like Will McKenzie from The Inbetweeners, sporting a blazer, school tie, and briefcase. Whilst his outdated choice of school uniform and slightly odd appearance make him stand out from the crowd, this is all explained by the fact that he was home schooled in Canada while his opera singer mother travelled around the country to perform. Sadly, Brandon’s mother is now dead, and he has been forced to swap Canada for Bearsden and finish his studies in Scotland.

Being a new pupil, Brandon understandably begins life at Bearsden Academy as a bit of a loner, but over the duration of the school year eventually grows to become a popular figure amongst fellow students, endearing himself to the school’s teachers with his mature personality and impressive knowledge of their subjects. Brandon lives the life of a model student; acing exams, tutoring other kids, hosting parties in his house that brings different school cliques together, even starring in the school’s production of musical South Pacific. Everything is going great at Bearsden Academy. It’s only after an end-of-year holiday to Tenerife where the artist formerly known as Brandon’s mask starts to slip and the truth begins to unravel.

Brian MacKinnon aka Brandon Lee enjoying a meal with his fellow students. Face pixelated to avoid spoiling the documentary’s big reveal

Director Jona McLeod – a former Bearsden Academy pupil himself – chronicles the exploits of Brian MacKinnon/Brandon Lee by combining live action interviews of Brandon’s former classmates with animated re-enactments of the timeline of events outlined by the ex-pupils. Brian MacKinnon also has a voice, providing his own perspective through an interview conducted by McLeod. MacKinnon refused to consent to the video of this interview being used, so McLeod employs the help of Alan Cumming (Spy Kids, GoldenEye, The Good Wife) to lip-sync the audio of McLeod’s interview with MacKinnon. It’s an effective technique that allows MacKinnon’s version of events to be just as present and engaging as the input of his former classmates. Given he doesn’t move from behind his desk and we don’t actually hear his voice, Cumming does a lot with a little, nailing the facial expressions and body language that you expect MacKinnon to have used while telling his story.

Despite Cumming being the only recognisable on-screen presence, he is not the star of My Old School. That honour goes to the ex-pupils who offer their memories surrounding the ridiculous events leading up to the unmasking of Brandon Lee in 1995. The film has some genuinely hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments as the students debate MacKinnon’s motives, contradict one another’s memory of the events, and generally reflect on the bizarre circumstances with twinkly-eyed nostalgia and a strange fondness for Brandon.

Some of the ex-pupils’ reflect on the legitimately life-changing impact that Brandon had on them – which is almost understandable, given he was nearly old enough to be a father figure to them. Stefen, a black pupil who Brandon befriended in one particular class, recounts how Brandon was one of the few students who actually spoke to him at a time where other kids in the predominantly white, middle-class school would post racist messages through his letterbox at home. Stefen’s account of his struggles with bullying at Bearsden Academy, and the help that Brandon gave him in overcoming some of the issues he was facing, is genuinely lump-in-throat stuff. Another student explains how Brandon convinced him to ditch his love for techno music and introduced him to 80s bands like Orange Juice and Television, something which he says changed him at the time and is still a huge part of his personality today (understandable music choices for Brandon, since these were the bands that he actually grew up listening to). The clear message is that Brandon’s very wrong and very dodgy second stint at high school had a genuinely positive and profound impact on some of the students who he crossed paths with.

My Old School works because MacKinnon’s motive for returning to Bearsden Academy wasn’t the kind of sleazy, sinister reasoning that you might find in a fictionalised Hollywood version of this type of situation. The teenage MacKinnon’s dream was to study medicine and become a doctor, and he was on track to achieve his goal after successfully passing his first attempt at Scottish exams and securing a place on Glasgow University’s prestigious medicine programme. After being kicked out of university for failing his exams, he took the ridiculous step of creating a new identity and returning to school to re-achieve the same grades and be accepted into another university’s medicine course. On some level you must concede that it is commendable for anyone to go to that level of extreme behaviour to realise your dream.

At one point in the film, Brandon’s physics teacher recounts how Brandon once asked him to define time and questioned whether time travel was real. The teacher’s response to Brandon was that we can probably conclude that time travel is impossible, because if it wasn’t, we’d have met someone from the past or the future. You could say that Brian’s re-appearance at Bearsden Academy was a form of symbolic time travel, and it’s the constant presence of these idiosyncratic questions, quotes, and hints that Brandon/Brian dropped while living his lie that make the story so endearing. While (almost) pulling off the heist of the century, Brandon was taunting those around him, breaking the fourth wall of his charade; ‘hiding in plain sight’, as he puts it.

Brian MacKinnon’s actions were so blasé that nobody involved bothered to question their legitimacy. His peers were just kids, still at an age where they existed within the authoritarian structure of living with your parents and attending school. They believe whatever they are told, and they trust that the adults have undertaken the appropriate due diligence. Director McLeod spells out why My Old School is so enjoyable; ‘it was funny because all the teachers fell for it. If your teachers have been shown up for total mugs, it’s brilliant’. 

At the end of the day, that’s really all that matters.