HondaReport.com - Film Review: School of Rock delivers a big hit

This film had all the makings of a potential lemon: Character actor as the sole anchor of a film without car chases, fake breasts and f-bombs. Thankfully, School of Rock is everything that your average artsy, whining and unrealistic film is not. Sure, School of Rock is purely fictional, but there’s no mistaking the passion and fervor of its rocking focal point, played to a perfect note by Jack Black.

HondaReport.com Movie Review
Title: School of Rock
Pupule’s Rating: * * * 1/2 stars

MPPR Rating: PG-13
Date of Viewing: Friday, October 3, 2003
Location: Dole Cannery

The Hype: Jack Black has let his frenetic, Tasmanian Devil-style caricature bleed on for more than a while now. However, can he carry a story centered around his character? His side role in High Fidelity was a much-needed boost of adrenaline to a hilarious plot built around neurotic, ground-level personalities. Shallow Hal was a mixed bag at best, more gimmick than Black. Could he get us to buy into his role as a faux substitute teacher? Or would this simplistic story fall on the weight of Black’s ample behind?

Strengths: Mike White’s writing and Black’s versatility are hand-made, knitted oven mittens that bring goodies out of the oven that is their imagination. White’s role in the film as the whipped Ned Schneedly and Sarah Silverman’s portrayal as the everyday nag-of-a-girlfriend work well because they show up in the film in small doses. That gives the film a chance to develop the characters in the ‘real world’ of the plot: rocker wannabe Black and his classically-trained fifth-grade students. Instead of relying on cheesy one-liners borrowed from a WB reject, the strategy and execution of the ‘class project’ requires involvement from every one of the two dozen students in the classroom of Black’s character, Dewey. No hole is left uncovered; to keep the project, a.k.a. School of Rock, completely covert, measures are taken by the kids to keep security watch of the hallways via school cameras, soundproofed playing equipment and more. The real meat is in the more minute moments—and there are a lots of them. Dewey’s passion and precision regarding chord progressions and stylistic maneuvers draws the group of ubertalented 10-year-olds into a word of rocking ‘The Man.’ There is no way anyone but White and Black could have seriously known that a 100-minute film of Black in a classroom of 10-year-olds (some of them are true musicians who get to rock out in the final credits) would work so well.

Weaknesses: The purity of Dewey’s passion for rock n’ roll—he cringes when the kids tell him that rock is about sleaze, drugs and booze—is almost evangelical, and that’s a big reason why the kids buy in to an otherwise unappealing, chubby ‘old’ guy’s dream. Getting us to believe that it would be so easy for 15 kids to sneak into a van and split from campus is a stretch. Even then, I buy it because Black’s manic passion for giving the world just “one show that can change their world” allows the imagination to suspend reality. There are films with so little depth and reality that my watch seems to tick in slow-motion. This is certainly not one of those weak flicks.

Best Scene: There are many, but to put it in one compact nutshell, it would be seeing the docile Asian pianist overcome his self-loathing and lack of ‘coolness’ by learning to rock. When Dewey dares the class to view him as ‘The Man’ and spew some punk attitude, the Asian boy tells it like it is: “You are fat and you have body odor.” That three-second byte said it all.

Worst Scene: Tie together all of the witchiness of Silverman’s character and it gets old after awhile. Then again, I’m someone who thinks she’s hilarious (and cute) in her stand-up routine, so I may have been secretly longing for more from her role.

Summary: This is a breakthrough role for Black, who proves with this film that he can and will carry a movie. Some other filmmakers should take note, i.e. Lost in Translation, and learn that conflict and development of more than one relationship are vital to nearly all plots. Where Lost literally lost me in the meandering, unrealistic babbling of two people wallowing in their neuroses, School of Rock rode a wave of empowerment both for Dewey—a self-admitted wannabe-star—and the sheltered children of the private school he winds up teaching at. Few warts are hidden in this story, and instead of trying to hide them, Black’s fervor and dedication—for all his loserness as a career professional (he is kicked out of his own band early in the film)—allow the story to truly rock. Sometimes the best movie is the one with the least whininess, and rock is nothing but a bludgeon to wimpiness. Joan Cusack is perfectly cast as the school’s uptight principal-on-edge, and her presence gives Dewey a chance to not just rock against her, but more so, to win her over by rocking her out. Richard Linklater’s willingness to let the camera capture Black and the kids without artsy angles or background tunes is smart. To use a football analogy: You see the toss sweep coming, you want to defend against it, but it keeps gaining ground over and over. Linklater, White and Black can take pride in this work. Basic, smashmouth fundamentals of good filmmaking. They could’ve called this School of Film.

Discretionary notes: This is as clean as most films get these days. No extreme obscenities, no bullets, no nudity, no sex scenes, no boozing, no drug-abusing. In fact, what makes Black more remarkable—in a uniquely Cosbyish way—is that he gets laughs without the ‘cool’ hip-hop mentality of cussing. I’d take a 15-year-old but not the 7-year-old. One of the more unusual scenes came late in the film, when the kids go to the “Battle of the Bands.” Moments before they take the stage, Dewey leads them in a prayer to the God of Rock, which was simple and easily could have been substituted with a prayer to God. Even the closing of the prayer was intriguingly similar to a normal prayer. It’s evident that Linklater, White and Black know exactly what water they tread upon.