Weather for oberlin.oh provided by weatherroom.com.

Search this issue

Recent issues
October 10
October 3
September 26
Older issues ...

Review info
About us
Subscriptions
Advertising

<< Front page Arts October 31, 2003
 
Jack Black rocks the family
School of Rock features Black as lovable teacher

It is refreshing to watch comedies that don’t pander to one audience. These are the comedies where parents and kids can go to the same film, friends can all go to the same film, mortal enemies can go to the same film and everyone will have a good time. It is so refreshing to have films that don’t go for the easy laugh and choose heart over cynicism. Such films are rare but they do exist. School of Rock is such a film.

The film focuses on failed rocker Dewey Finn. Dewey knows how to serve the world by rocking. Unfortunately, his band doesn’t think so and they fire him. His roommate Ned (Mike White, who also wrote the film) and Ned’s obnoxious girlfriend (Sarah Silverman) threaten to evict him if he can’t come up with the rent. Dewey needs to find a job, and as fate would have it, he decides to take Ned’s. Ned is a subsitute teacher and when Horace Green elementary needs a sub for a few weeks, Dewey decides to pretend that he’s Ned. When he gets to the school, he’s content just to dress as a pompous teacher and give his fifth grade class recess all day. But when he overhears the kids during their music class, Dewey decides to take his ruse one step further and use the kids to help him win the Battle of the Bands.

Reading over that synopsis, Dewey probably sounds like a real bastard. Here’s a guy who steals his friend’s job and then uses children to try to achieve rock glory. But it’s Jack Black’s star-making performance that makes the film come alive and never lets Dewey come off as anything but loveable and an underdog we can all root for. Black’s exuberance and vitality electrify the entire film and every scene cracks with energy. Each line, whether comedic or mundane, becomes sensational when uttered by Black and if you don’t fall in love with the character of Dewey, you might want to check for a pulse.

But any Tenacious D fan knows that Black can meld rocking and comedy like no other. The real surprise for me was the work of director Richard Linklater. I have seen Slacker, Waking Life and Dazed and Confused and, amazingly, disliked all three (that’s right, I’m one of the four people on this earth that doesn’t like Dazed and Confused). I just think that while he has an interesting directorial style, he has no idea how to tell a story. But in such a mainstream flick, Linklater makes all the right moves. School of Rock is a film that could easily collapse under cheesiness or meanness at one extreme and sappiness at the other. Linklater walks the line brilliantly. Part of what makes Dewey such a likeable character is his dedication to helping these kids feel better about themselves. But before such a mentoring scene can start ripping at the heartstrings, Linklater pushes the film forward leaving the viewer with a good feeling with none of the schmaltzy aftertaste.

The film does have a few weak points. Having such a blatently gay fifth grader as the band’s costumer seems like a cheap laugh and some of the kids aren’t the best actors although they’re certainly tremendous musicians. But such small flaws ultimately don’t detract from such a strong film. School of Rock is a film that you should see and take everyone with you. If you’ve already seen it, see it again and take everyone with you.