Fired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his students the finer points of rock 'n' roll. The school's hard-nosed principal is rightly suspicious of Finn's activities. But Finn's roommate remains in the dark about what he's doing.
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This movie is seriously so fun, so charming, and has a great message about kids and education. It stars actual normal-looking people Jack Black and Joan Cusack. Mike White and Richard Linklater make a kids comedy? Come on, it rocks.
Every once in a while there comes a piece of work focusing on disillusionment. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" looks at the conversion of Christmas from a religious festivity to a cynical excuse for frenzied commercialism. Michelangelo Antonioni's trilogy consisting of "L'avventura", "La notte" and "L'eclisse" focuses on the alienation resulting from modernity. And now, Richard Linklater's "School of Rock", which looks at anger arising from the co-opting of popular culture. Jack Black plays a raucous, unambitious musician who poses as his friend (a substitute teacher) to take a position at a prestigious elementary school. He proceeds to teach the students about rock's rebellious origins, and how it got turned into a dumbed-down product. Soon, he gets the class to form a band.In addition to how Black's character gets the students to stick it to the man (his words), the movie also addresses the obsession that many parents have with seeing their children be the best at everything. Joan Cusack's strict disciplinarian is the embodiment of this attitude. Basically, the movie is an excuse to have fun, and it succeeds in every way. It was also interesting to see Sarah Silverman in an early role (I didn't know about her until a few years later, although it turns out that she had appeared in some movies by this point). True, the movie isn't a masterpiece, but it's not supposed to be. If you laugh while watching the movie, then it's done its job.
Jack Black is one of those actors who always play slight variations of themselves. He could be described as a character actor or less nicely, an actor with not much of a range.Not surprisingly, in this movie he is an obnoxious, selfish, immature guy who sings in a low-level band and exploits an old friend for free lodgings. When the girlfriend of said friend asks him to pay the rent, he resentfully set out to find a job. Said girlfriend portrayed as an unpleasant bitch, only because she makes a reasonable request...Through a series of implausible events Jack (apologies, I mean Dewey) ends up teaching rock to a bunch of kids in a posh school. Not because he likes teaching but because he needs them to be his "support band" for the battle of the bands, since no legitimate rock band would have him.It is quite creepy to hear a grown-up man telling pre-pubescent girls they could be groupies, not to mention the manipulation of kids for his own purpose. At the end Jack (I mean Dewey) acknowledges that the band is more important than any single member, but throughout the movie we see him in every single scene playing the only "cool" character among a bunch of boring, nasty, square people of all ages.Besides Black being totally predictable, the screenplay is even more so. Finally, for a comedy there are very few real funny moments. The only saving grace is the music, with a totally unexpected bit from Led Zeppelin exploding in a scene.For die-hard Black's fans and people who think being a freeloader is a cool way to live. P.S. also probably the worst Linklater film.
School of Rock is actually beyond a classic.I endured Disney and to a lesser extent Pixar until this baby appeared.Jack Black. Thank you for saving every Dad in the world from bad kid movie sheet.It's nothing short of awesome.Loud.Proud.Rock and roll.By 10 year olds.And Jack Black at his peak.Just watch it man.
