My Old School

A documentary about Brian MacKinnon, a man who went back to his old school posing as a teenager when really he was 30 years old. People suspected something was up but he got away with it, all as a ruse to get back into university and study medicine - his “destiny”.

It’s an oddball setup here, Brian talks to the film makers but refuses to go on camera, so Alan Cumming is instead hired to lip sync to the audio interview. It works reasonably well, especially when the real insight comes from those around him at the time, who go on camera for real.

It’s sometimes hard to see the light tone of this film (set by its interviewees rather than the film makers) and contrast it with the fact that he actually did something quite sinister. I was laughing along with it until the school play video of him full blown snogging a 16 year old girl. Everyone had remembered it as being barely a kiss, with Brian being reluctant to even take part. The video shows the exact opposite, and it’s an interesting insight into how we can take pretty weird and dark events and turn them into something much lighter when we have to.

At the time of writing today, MacKinnon has appeared in court admitting hiding in the home of his former university professor and threatening both the professor and his wife, now in their late eighties. Hindsight is 20/20 but it is clear now he is more than just a harmless guy trying to reach his dreams, he’s completely obsessed and it’s ruined his life.