director
Richard Linklater
screenwriter
Mike White
producer
Scott Rudin
cinematographer
Rogier Stoffers
music
Craig Wedren
editor
Sandra Adair
cast
Jack Black (Dewey Finn)
Joan Cusack (Principal Rosalie Mullins)
Mike White (Ned Schneebly)
Sarah Silverman (Patty)
Joey Gaydos (Zack)
Maryam Hassan (Tomika)
Kevin Clark (Kevin)
Rebecca Brown (Katie)
Robert Tsai (Lawrence)
Caitlin Hale (Marta)
Aleisha Allen (Alicia)
Miranda Cosgrove (Summer)
Brian Falduto (Billy)
Zachary Infante (Gordon)
James Hosey (Marco)
Angelo Massagli (Frankie)
Cole Hawkins (Leonard)
Veronica Afflerbach (Eleni)
Jordan-Claire Green (Michelle)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 108m
u.s.
release: 10/3/03
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
other richard
linklater films
reviewed on this website:
- the bad
news bears
- before
sunrise
(short
review)
- before
sunset
- the newton boys
- suburbia
- waking
life
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I know a guy who was probably
in his teens when KISS were at their peak of popularity in the
'70s, and who now has a son who's happy to go to the more recent
KISS concerts with his dad. The School of Rock is for
that guy and his son: Two generations lock hands over bone-crushing
guitar solos and the "stick it to the Man" ethos of
rock. And when I say "rock," I don't mean the bland
growling noise that passes for rock today; I mean rawwwk,
dude, the soundtrack of the '70s -- not only heavy-metal titans
like AC/DC and Led Zep, but also more contemplative outfits like
Yes and Pink Floyd. Doesn't have to break windows, man, it just
has to blow your mind and melt your face.
The School of Rock is a loving valentine to true rock,
disguised as a kiddie movie incongruously starring Jack Black
and even more incongruously directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed
and Confused, Waking Life)
and written by Mike White (Chuck and Buck, The Good
Girl). What are all these people doing messing around with
a kids' movie? Well, they're not, even if it has kids in it.
White has devised a rather shrewd premise: Black plays Dewey
Finn, an egomaniacal singer/guitarist -- wait, that's sort of
a redundancy -- who gets booted from his band for being, well,
a singer/guitarist. He pulls killer solos, capers around onstage,
and leaps into the audience to surf the crowd. He's not the lead
singer, but he doesn't know that. Meanwhile, he's living with
his substitute-teacher buddy (screenwriter White), who used to
be in a crazy rock band before settling down, and his buddy's
bitchy girlfriend (Sarah Silverman), the kind of girlfriend who
lives to domesticate her man and strangle his dreams. Dewey needs
money to pay the rent or Ms. Bitchy will kick him to the curb,
so he snags one of his buddy's substitute jobs at an elite private
school.
Weaving from a hangover, Dewey
stands before the class -- full of a bunch of already-neurotic
overachievers, driven to succeed by their yuppie parents -- and
declares that there will be no grades, no learning, and lots
of recess. But he happens to glimpse a few of them in a music
class, and sees that they have talent. Wheels turn in Dewey's
head, and his "secret class project" gets underway.
The classical guitarist in the class becomes "Zack Attack,"
learning Black Sabbath riffs. A shy, chubby girl unfurls a voice
to rival Aretha. The cymbal player gets set loose on a full set
of drums. The bashful piano player is pointed towards a keyboard
and given Rick Wakeman as homework. Dewey knows his classic rock,
and the movie does, too. Linklater, whose nostalgic masterpiece
Dazed and Confused was loaded with the stuff, feels the
down-and-dirty transportive power of "The Immigrant Song"
or "The Great Gig in the Sky."
Make no mistake: The School
of Rock breathes mainstream air. It's another case of independent
film artists beating Hollywood at its own game (it's being distributed
by Paramount, but its many symbols of anti-authority rock don't
feel misplaced). The script is something of a first for Mike
White, who here seems to be engaging in Hollywood formula to
study its habits. There is, for instance, an uptight school principal
(Joan Cusack) who must eventually loosen up and appreciate the
band Dewey forms with the kids; but Joan Cusack plays her as
an update of her harried mom in Say Anything, of whom
Lloyd Dobler said "You used to be warped and twisted and
hilarious." I believed that then, and I believe it now.
Would there be a movie without
Jack Black? Maybe, but not as fun. Black's performance, while
toned down for PG-13 consumption, loses none of its hellraising
glee, and he makes us buy Dewey's skewed altruism in teaching
the kids about Iron Maiden and Led Zep; these kids don't even
know what rock is, for God's sake, they need help.
The movie threatens to veer into Dead Poets Society territory
when we learn that some of the parents don't approve of Dewey's
methods. After all, rock will not help their children compete
in the real world. Maybe not -- and the script acknowledges
that with the outcome of the Battle of the Bands the kids enter
-- but the purpose of rock is not to win or lose; the purpose
of rock is to rock. Dewey plausibly teaches a bunch of post-rock
kids the power of old-school rock, and maybe a lot of viewers
young and old will learn it from this movie, too. Well, except
that guy and his son. They already know.
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