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The School of Rock
(Reviewed August 4, 2003)
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As of August 4, this is hands-down the most enjoyable movie of 2003. Exactly how good is it? So good that I'll actually GET OFF MY WALLET and PAY TO SEE IT AGAIN when it arrives in theatres.
(That won't be until October 3, so I have plenty of time to collect bottle deposits, sell plasma and panhandle to accumulate the price of a ticket.)
Jack Black stars as a flat-broke, rocker-wannabe loser who resorts to impersonating a substitute teacher in order to pay the rent. He then secretly turns an elementary-school class of repressed,
straight-arrow rich kids into a free-your-minds-and-the-rest-will-follow rock band. Simple concept, sure, but Black is so hilariously passionate about the power and grandeur of rawk that this is obviously
the Role He Was Born To Play. (Offscreen, Black is half of the Spinal-Tappish group Tenacious D, and obviously knows his way around a tortured guitar solo. In fact, one of the movie's other charms is
that the students in the cast also play their own instruments--and these kids are really good!)
I know it sounds incredible, but this is a comedy that is genuinely funny. Not just "occasional semi-amused smile" funny, which is the best that can be said about most of this year's pathetic crop
of sitcomish crap, but often laugh-out-loud hilarious. Best of all, the movie got that reaction from both Generation Y iPodders as well as baby-boomers who can remember buying vinyl LPs by the acts
Black's character loves: Led Zep, Pink Floyd, the Who and other Classic Rock deities. Mike White (who plays Black's put-upon best friend and roommate) wrote the script, which manages to hit all
the right notes (ahem) while miraculously remaining kid-friendly enough that you could take your own future Hendrixes to see it. (Somehow, even the almost total lack of drug references
does not seem odd.) Other cast members include comedian Sarah Silverman as White's bitchy-hot wife, who wants Black thrown out of the apartment the three of them share, and Joan Cusack as the
private school's tightassed principal who has a secret thang for Stevie Nicks.
There are precious few surprises in the plot--I mean, come on, you pretty much know how this story is going to play out from the very first note--but "School of Rock" overcomes this predictability
with sheer charm. Black's often manic performance is worthy of "new Belushi" praise, and the whole project is so likeable and sweet that it seems to have arrived from another planet.
Or, in words that I'm sure will find their way into the movie's print advertising, probably attributed to some other critic who is not fit to lick the soles of my hobnailed purple-velvet boots, "The School of Rock" rocks!
Back Row Grade: A
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