School of Rock: Movie Review, DVD Review (2003)

(Originally published 2003)

Directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White, 110 minutes, rated PG-13.

The sharp, funny new comedy, "School of Rock," tells the story of Dewey Finn (Jack Black), a thirtysomething slacker with no career prospects who has staked much of his future on what some might consider an elusive dream--becoming a professional rock musician, one who can bang his head and hit the power chords with the best of them.

But Dewey, who isn't exactly a doer, has fallen short of that, so short, in fact, that he recently was booted from his own band just weeks before they were set to compete in a potentially life-altering, $20,000 battle of the bands.

Making matters worse for Dewey is Dewey’s digs, which don’t exactly have the ice or the bling-bling of an episode of “Cribs.”

He lives in a cramped apartment with his best friend, Ned (Mike White), a mousy substitute teacher and former bandmate long since resigned to Dewey's mooching, and Ned's uptight girlfriend, Patty (Sarah Silverman), who loathes Dewey’s laziness with the sort of white-hot contempt Dewey himself usually reserves for the likes of Christina Aguilera.

Desperate to find work before these two give him the heave-ho, Dewey does some tricky, if illegal, maneuvering. He passes himself off as Ned, starts teaching fifth grade at an exclusive New York prep school, and fools the rigid principal, Rosalie (Joan Cusack), into believing he’s teaching the curriculum when what he’s really teaching is these kids the history of rock and how to rock ‘n’ roll.

If the premise sounds like a stretch, imagine how tight the movie is pulled when Dewey turns these 10-year-olds into members of his new band and asks them to compete against his old band in the aforementioned battle of the bands. Against the odds, director Richard Linklater ("Waking Life”), working from a script by Mike White (“The Good Girl”), makes the movie work.

Beyond its appreciation of rock music, which is genuine and keeps the film grounded with credibility, what the movie nails is its understanding of the common bond shared between great teachers--the best take risks, putting themselves on the line daily in an effort to reach a generation of increasingly distracted kids. Dewey, a natural teacher, does so with a passion that’s as liberating as the music he loves. When he says he wants to serve society by rocking, he’s not kidding—and these kids take notice.

Black’s comedy has always been a mix of the physical and the intellectual, and here he refines it, resisting parody by remaining focused on the core of who Dewey is—a frustrated rock star longing for his big break.

The movie is predictable and formulaic, but it counters with a disarming charm. Better yet, it doesn't condescend, its cast of young people, mostly non-actors who are real musicians, don’t come off as if they were harvested in the studio’s backlot and Black's performance, in many ways an extension of the pop culture savant he played in "High Fidelity," is a jewel of youthful enthusiasm drumming within an adult’s body.

Rock on.

Grade: B+

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