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School of Rock Movie Review

School of Rock is a 2003 comedy film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Jack Black. It’s a solid, but overly commercial movie.

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“I have been touched by your kids…

and I’m pretty sure that I’ve touched them“

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Yes, this was not up my valley per say. I personally find Linklater’s other movies such as ‘Tape’ and ‘SubUrbia’ much better than this one, not to mention his most famous classics. I respect his dialogue-driven intellectual fare, but this was exactly the opposite. A rock guitarist becomes a teacher and tries to teach all the kids how to rock. That’s the basic premise behind this very familiar, very slight film.

Do not get me wrong, the movie is solid, but just not great. I really liked the first half as it was a whole lot of fun seeing Jack Black’s character be lazy and have confrontations with his pupils. The classroom scenes are easily the highlights here. However, the second half became way too conventional and cliched, and that is where the movie lost me personally.

This has to be the quintessential role in Jack Black’s career as he was simply born to play Dewey Finn – a loser who gets kicked out of a rock band and who is obsessed with the past. He is very confident in the role and immensely funny. I also really liked the principal character played by Joan Cusack. She’s great in the role and a lot of fun. Again, we have seen both of these characters many times before in many movies, but their development is very strong here, and their relationship is undeniably well realized. I loved the car scenes.

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School of Rock has weaker performances from the kids, at least from most of them, but as characters, I really liked most of them, and again their interactions with the protagonist are both sweet and funny. The dialogue is good and some lines are terrific, but the movie unfortunately devolved into expected plot points in the third act. It’s technically well made for sure, but Linklater should be making his style of films and not resort to conventionality. Also, this film is not a musical, but a comedy revolving around music.

Although a lot of fun in its first act, often quite witty and very well acted by Joan Cusack and Jack Black (this just might be his most quintessential role), School of Rock devolved into a very conventional story later down the line and, as such, it simply did not appeal to me that much. It’s a rare unsophisticated Linklater flick with too wide an appeal.

My Rating – 3.5

You can get School of Rock on Amazon.