My Old School (15)
Directed by Jono McLeod
★★★★

IN 1993 a Canadian student, Brandon Lee, joined the 5th form at Bearsden Academy in a posh suburb of Glasgow to follow his lifelong dream to go to medical school and become a doctor.

The slight problem was that he wasn’t Canadian, he wasn’t called Brandon or Lee and he wasn’t 16-years-old. He was also a failed medical student.

This mind-blowing documentary written and directed by his former classmate Jono McLeod reveals how a 30-year-old Lee, real name Brian MacKinnon, tricked his way into the school and how his deceit and true identity were uncovered.

Former teachers and pupils recount how they were duped by this older looking clean cut student who slowly won their trust and their friendship. He soon reached top of his class impressing staff and took the lead in the school musical South Pacific.

Former students describe him as being ballsy returning to his old school which he had attended in 1975 as a teenager. He was also taught again by some of the same teachers who taught him back then but failed to recognise him.

What is also striking is the impact he had on the schoolkids he befriended. They reveal how he changed their lives by broadening their musical horizons and improving their popularity and school life just by socialising with him.

While many speak warmly of Lee others feel cheated that he wasn’t punished for his actions.

My Old School is a visually compelling examination of one of the most bizarre cases of identity and deception in Scottish history.

Out in cinemas August 19

Fisherman’s Friends: One and All (12A)
Directed by Meg Leonard & Nick Moorcroft
★★★

PICKING up a year after the original 2019 film left off this joyous sequel charts the next stage in the uplifting true story of the Fisherman’s Friends.

It is one emotional roller-coaster ride as the “buoy band” struggle with the pressures and temptations of their newfound fame, getting a second album released and in the case of Jim (James Purefoy) dealing with the loss of his father (David Hayman) and finding his replacement in the group which causes tension and upset.

Purefoy returns with a greater role here and has a love interest portrayed by Irish singer/songwriter turned actor Imelda May. He is joined by some of his former cast mates although the absences of Daniel Mays as the band’s manager and Tuppence Middleton as Jim’s daughter are easily explained away.

Meanwhile the Sea Shanties are a joy to hear and the sun-drenched Cornish landscape and breathtaking vistas steal the film again.

It is cheesy at times but this is another heartwarming toe-tapping comedy drama and they really did sing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

Out in cinemas August 19

Anais in Love (15)
Directed by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
★★★★

THERE is nothing likeable about the whirlwind of a young woman at the centre of this engaging and effervescent French rom-com who bulldozes her way through life getting what she wants regardless of the devastation she leaves in her wake.

Yet Anais Demoustier’s virtuoso performance imbues the 30-year-old hapless Anais with a charisma and charm and joie de vivre which sweeps you up and helps excuse her manipulative ways.

Anais, who lives in the present, has to deal with her mother’s (Anne Canovas) cancer, an unwanted pregnancy, becoming involved with an older man (Denis Podalydes) and then falling for his writer wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in captivating form), who she then stalks until she wears her down, in the same way by moving full steam ahead without stopping to think.

This is an impressive debut feature by writer-director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet sustained by the spellbinding Demoustier.

Out in cinemas and digital platforms, August 19

The Feast (18)
Directed by Lee Haven Jones
★★★

MOTHER nature and the Earth fight back in this disturbing and grotesque environmental revenge horror set in Wales.

Filmed in Welsh, writer-director Lee Haven Jones’s debut feature is a macabre exploration of the consequences of greed, corruption and the exploitation of the land.

Unfolding over one evening it follows a young woman Cadi (a wonderfully unsettling Annes Elwy) as she helps prepare and serve a sumptuous dinner hosted by an obnoxious rich family at their remote lavish house in rural Wales.

The mysterious Cadi silently observes these self-entitled, immoral and narcissistic individuals who face a deadly reckoning over the lengths they are prepared to go to keep their wealth and power.

Graphically gruesome this slow-burning horror is a stomach churner as it works up to its bloodbath finale. An unsettling reminder of the need to stop destroying the Earth.

Out in cinemas August 19