Running time: 108 minutes
Starring: Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman
Rating 6 out of 10
Jack Black has come to personify the ultimate slacker, so when he teamed up with director Richard Linklater, who defined the term so resolutely in his 1991 film debut Slackers, it was obviously a perfect match. And while The School Of Rock is far from perfect, it's an enjoyable enough diversion that owes most of its plaudits to the irrepressibly energetic Black.
Black only has two states: manic and inert. Once stirred from the latter, he becomes the former and lo anyone or anything that tries to compete with him then. In The School Of Rock there is little threat as he is given full reign by Linklater to indulge his most crazed tendencies.
Black plays Dewey Finn, a musician possessed of an all consuming ambition, but little talent. At an age when most, including his best friend Ned Schneebly (Mike White - who also wrote the screenplay), have abandoned their adolescent dreams of rock stardom, Finn still devotes all his waking moments to its pursuit. When the henpecked Ned is forced by his uptight girlfriend Patty (Sarah Silverman) to extract rent from the freeloading Finn, Dewey is finally compelled to get a job.
Pretending to be Ned, Finn takes a substitute teaching assignment at a prestigious elementary school headed by the prissy Miss Mullins (Joan Cusack). In charge of a classroom of overachievers, Finn disposes of the more traditional curriculum in favour of recess. But when he discovers the musical talents of his students, he decides to devote his not inconsiderable energy into providing them with a rock and roll education. Swapping Debussy for the Doors, the kids are taught such fundamentals as 'rock appreciation' and 'rock history' while all the while being assembled into Finn's backing group for an upcoming Battle Of The Bands competition.
With a severe case of arrested development, Finn is the biggest kid of the lot. It's a role Black is made for. Black, who also has another career as a member of the group Tenacious D, brings all his musical moves, flailing and wailing like a hyped up Meat Loaf. As you'd expect, there's the typical pick n mix of kids, who under the misguidance of Finn, go from clean-cut goody goodies to fashion conscious rockers.
Director and writer have shown in the past that they are capable of producing moving and thought provoking work: Linklater with Waking Life and White, The Good Girl. It's clear that here they are content to dumb things down a notch or two. Subtlety is definitely playing truant, but for those who find Jack Black's unrestrained approach amusing, then The School Of Rock provides plenty of laughs.
Black only has two states: manic and inert. Once stirred from the latter, he becomes the former and lo anyone or anything that tries to compete with him then. In The School Of Rock there is little threat as he is given full reign by Linklater to indulge his most crazed tendencies.
Black plays Dewey Finn, a musician possessed of an all consuming ambition, but little talent. At an age when most, including his best friend Ned Schneebly (Mike White - who also wrote the screenplay), have abandoned their adolescent dreams of rock stardom, Finn still devotes all his waking moments to its pursuit. When the henpecked Ned is forced by his uptight girlfriend Patty (Sarah Silverman) to extract rent from the freeloading Finn, Dewey is finally compelled to get a job.
Pretending to be Ned, Finn takes a substitute teaching assignment at a prestigious elementary school headed by the prissy Miss Mullins (Joan Cusack). In charge of a classroom of overachievers, Finn disposes of the more traditional curriculum in favour of recess. But when he discovers the musical talents of his students, he decides to devote his not inconsiderable energy into providing them with a rock and roll education. Swapping Debussy for the Doors, the kids are taught such fundamentals as 'rock appreciation' and 'rock history' while all the while being assembled into Finn's backing group for an upcoming Battle Of The Bands competition.
With a severe case of arrested development, Finn is the biggest kid of the lot. It's a role Black is made for. Black, who also has another career as a member of the group Tenacious D, brings all his musical moves, flailing and wailing like a hyped up Meat Loaf. As you'd expect, there's the typical pick n mix of kids, who under the misguidance of Finn, go from clean-cut goody goodies to fashion conscious rockers.
Director and writer have shown in the past that they are capable of producing moving and thought provoking work: Linklater with Waking Life and White, The Good Girl. It's clear that here they are content to dumb things down a notch or two. Subtlety is definitely playing truant, but for those who find Jack Black's unrestrained approach amusing, then The School Of Rock provides plenty of laughs.
