Movie Reviews

There's something really cool about being in a band and creating a brand new song out of thin air, then shaping and moulding it into a finished product. I thought the best scenes in School of Rock were the ones in which Jack Black's character, a slightly washed up "never-was" rock star named Dewey Finn, works with a class of prep-school kids and teaches them how to first play a number of classic rocks songs, then later how to come up with their own original material.

Dewey had recently been kicked out of the band he'd formed because of his relentlessly "wanky" and endless guitar solos and the over-the-top cheese factor he brought to the group. With no other source of income, he masquerades as a substitute teacher and lands a gig with a class of fourth-graders. There's a big battle-of-the-bands coming up, and Dewey is determined to win it, even if that means teaching the kids how to rock, rather than read or write. It might sound sappy, but he eventually comes to realize that the kids are pretty cool and soon he's teaching them just as much about life and having fun as he is teaching them about music. It's a fairly predictable type of plot device, but Jack Black has a certain type of quirky charm that steers it well clear of sappiness.

There's nothing overly spectacular about School of Rock (except for maybe the scenes I mentioned where Dewey actually teaches the kids how to rock; those were really cool), but it's a nice film with a good number of really funny bits.