In 1993, six years after Johnny Depp and company were deemed too old to keep up the charade on “21 Jump Street,” Brandon Lee went back to Bearsden Academy. At least he said his name was Brandon Lee. Some people thought that was weird, since another Brandon Lee (son of Bruce, star of “The Crow”) had just died a few months earlier. They also found it strange that this fifth-year transfer student — who claimed to be from Canada, the same country where countless teenage con men swear that their long-distance girlfriends live — looked so much older than everyone else.
If you grew up in Scotland, you probably (think you) know this story. If you’re from the relatively posh Glasgow suburb of Bearsden, the Brandon Lee saga is the stuff of local legend. But if you’re stumbling into “My Old School” unawares, as most of the film’s virtual Sundance audience did, then you have a lot to learn from director Jono McLeod’s stranger-than-fiction doc, starting with the reason the director cast Scottish actor Alan Cumming in the film.
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Cumming doesn’t provide your typical documentary reenactments. Those are handled via retro, “Daria”-style animated sequences, performed by professional voice actors (including Clare Grogan and Lulu) and accompanied by a period-appropriate playlist. Meanwhile, Cumming sits in for the actual “Brandon Lee,” who agreed to let McLeod interview him, but not to appear on camera.
McLeod, it turns out, went to Bearsden…
