The kids are all right, and so is the teacher
With a force that can only be described as Belushiesque (as in John), Jack Black throws his considerable heft into The School of Rock - an engagingly screwball comic vehicle in which the actor and Tenacious D frontman goes through an inventory of heavy-metal moves and makes a mockery of them at the same time. It's one of the great have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too performances of the year. Scripted by the subversively odd Mike White (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl) and directed by Richard Linklater, whose Dazed and Confused remains a landmark in the teen movie canon, The School of Rock is like a pip-squeak-stoner Dead Poets Society. There's an inspirational but problem-plagued prof (Black's character, Dewey Finn) who leads his insecure fifth-grade proteges to bigger and better things - in this case, being in a killer rock band.
With a force that can only be described as Belushiesque (as in John), Jack Black throws his considerable heft into The School of Rock - an engagingly screwball comic vehicle in which the actor and Tenacious D frontman goes through an inventory of heavy-metal moves and makes a mockery of them at the same time. It's one of the great have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too performances of the year.
Scripted by the subversively odd Mike White (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl) and directed by Richard Linklater, whose Dazed and Confused remains a landmark in the teen movie canon, The School of Rock is like a pip-squeak-stoner Dead Poets Society. There's an inspirational but problem-plagued prof (Black's character, Dewey Finn) who leads his insecure fifth-grade proteges to bigger and better things - in this case, being in a killer rock band.
How Dewey Finn, a stage-diving, solo-hogging guitarist of dubious talent, ends up instructing children in a fancy private school is one of the I Love Lucy plot twists that gives this movie its innocent charm. Dewey's roommate (played by White) is a substitute teacher; Dewey's roommate is out of the apartment when a call comes in from Horace Green Elementary; Dewey has just been fired by his band, and he's behind on the rent - hence, the light bulb that goes off over Dewey's head.
And so, Dewey is off and running - or driving, in his dilapidated old van - to the prestigious school, impersonating a substitute teacher and railing against "The Man" before a class of puzzled 11-year-olds.
He also says things like, "One great rock show can change the world."
What's not to admire?
The barrel-shaped Black arches those devilish eyebrows and strikes power-stance poses, showing a rock geek's against-all-odds determination to live out his fantasies of platinum-album fame and fortune. To that end, Dewey seduces Horace Green's uptight principal (an awkwardly funny Joan Cusack, when funnily awkward would have worked better) with his bluster and blarney, persuading her over drinks in a bar (with Fleetwood Mac on the jukebox) to let the kids go on a field trip that is, in reality, a battle of the bands contest.
With his blazered munchkins at the keyboards, drums and bass - and other kids functioning as roadies, sound engineers and publicists - the group sets out to conquer the world. Meanwhile, the grade-schoolers' parental units - not to mention Cusack's Principal Mullins - are unaware of what the renegade rocker substitute is doing.
Trouble ensues.
With its shamelessly old-school premise and toned-down allusions to drugs and drink, The School of Rock is decidedly mainstream fare. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and with the likes of Black, White and Linklater, there's a limit to how mainstream this mainstream can be. More than a few chords of skewed and screwy irreverence are struck here, too.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
The School of Rock *** (out of four stars)
Produced by Scott Rudin, directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White, photography by Rogier Stoffers, music by Craig Wedren, distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Running time: 1 hour, 48 mins.
Dewey Finn. . . Jack Black
Rosalie Mullins. . . Joan Cusack
Ned Schneebly. . . Mike White
Patty. . . Sarah Silverman
Parent's guide: PG-13 (profanity, drug references)
Playing at: area theaters