Film Review | School of Rock

Released: 2003
Starring: Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman, Miranda Cosgrove
Director: Richard Linklater
Produced by: Paramount Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (UK – PG)

“Take notes.”

I am going to start by saying I love this movie. When I was a kid, I watched School of Rock nearly every day of my life. Even though I haven’t seen it in nearly ten years, I found I could quote many scenes from the movie and remembered almost all the details. There is brilliant acting – both from Jack Black, writer and star Mike White, and the young main cast – the jokes are fantastic, the script aged well, and nothing about this film has gotten any less entertaining over the last fifteen years.

That being said, I was especially excited to re-watch for the purposes of this review, not just because I am a fan of the movie and it is always worth a viewing, but because I was eager to see it after having worked in the education system for a few years. As a youngster, this movie spoke to me because of my love of rock music and my connection to the characters as I was a budding musician. I didn’t relate too well to Ned Schneebly (Mike White; Orange County) as he was “not a temp” but a substitute teacher. I had no understanding of the life of an adult let alone one who is working as a substitute in order to try and achieve his certification. However, during my time as a “temp”, I found myself thinking about this movie simply for that character. I suddenly understood some of the references and some of the humour in this movie that was reserved for only people familiar with Ned’s situation. Also, having been a music teacher for the past few years, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the things I noticed about Dewey’s character as well contrary to the idiotic man he is portrayed as.

I started my most recent viewing and I decided to take note of some of the most peculiar things that I noticed about this film that simply didn’t occur to me as a child. Aside from Jack Black’s inadvertently productive music lessons, things like back to school night and the typical faculty room banter had me rolling unexpectedly.

The plot of this film, the delivery, and the creative way in which every aspect of it is presented made it easy for me to not be bothered by the glaring problems in this movie. The whole thing is just so fun and so enjoyable that even while I was noticing some of the more bizarre problems in the plot I was saying to myself, “This movie is the greatest” because, really, it is. For a film that spun a Broadway show and a television series of its own, I’d say it’s earned a place in everyone’s peripherals.

School of Rock presents Dewey Finn (Jack Black; Nacho Libre, King Kong), a washed-up rock-and-roll wannabe who is hard up for a job and pretends to be his roommate to make money as a substitute teacher. He discovers the children he is teaching are talented in music and he decides to teach them how to play rock so he can use them to win the prize money in the local Battle of the Bands. Joan Cusack (Grosse Pointe Blank) plays the uptight principal, Ms. Mullins, who creates brilliant friction across from the wild Jack Black and adds a layer of surrealness to the whole film.

Most of this movie takes place in a private prep school in what is presumed to be New York City. At one point, the principal claims it is the “best elementary school in the state”. Although I work in public school, I couldn’t help but compare things I saw in this film to my real-life experience of having worked as a substitute teacher. The school offers Ned $650 a week (information that the principal was willing to offer to a stranger on the phone knowing that he was definitely not Ned Schneebly) which works out to $130. As schools in my area go, this is one of the best ‘per diem’ paychecks I have seen. It’s not unheard of, but it would definitely be a sought-after school. It did surprise me, however, that Ned is not already a teacher, but they called him in for a long-term sub position. He explains to Dewey that, “I’m a sub and soon I’ll be a certified teacher,” which is difficult to do as many states require you to have a certification before subbing.

Although this is clearly nitpicking, I feel as though some other details were missing. When Dewey and Ms. Mullins first enter the classroom, no adult is in the room with the students. Dewey is also allowed immediately into the school based only on his resume – no ID, no clearances, no actual confirmation that this man is Ned Schneebly. The entire integrity of the plot relies on this very grievous mistake.

At this point, I’m wondering how the school became the best in the state and I’m sort of wondering why a broken leg (of which the children’s usual teacher is suffering after slipping in the bathroom) warrants missing school for several weeks. Later on, the position is even extended so that she is gone for months. Did she slip in acid? Did she fall and her entire leg fell off? This must have been some incident.

I am also wondering how Dewey, who is $2200 in debt to his roommate for rent and utilities, is able to afford a 1968 Gibson SG (the choice guitar of rock stars like Pete Townshend of the Who and Angus Young of AC/DC) in addition to several other guitars, a drum set, monitors, a light show, etc. It is possible he had accumulated this from his time as a musician, but it all seems a bit much to carry around all of it in the back of his truck.

Sidenote: the school serves whole pint-sized cups of french fries. Unrealistic.

I want to take this moment to say this: even if you aren’t a fan of Jack Black, there is a scene in this movie that really shows off his talents and is very easy to appreciate. Around the halfway point in the film, the kids ask ‘Mr. S’ if he will sing the song he wrote for them. In one take, he presents to them not only the song itself but his vision for the staging, sound effects, instrumentation, all the vocal parts, choreography, and a wicked guitar solo all by himself. This scene is done in one take and, most likely, improvised to some extent. This is one of my favourite scenes in any movie and quintessential Jack Black at his finest.

Despite his sneaking illegally into the school and having no experience with education, Dewey does a pretty good job of teaching the students how to work as a coherent unit. He motivates the kids with a common goal, praises them for working hard, encourages them to utilize talents they didn’t know they had, makes sure everyone feels included…it sounds like everything they teach you in a Masters of Ed program. Despite students literally coming up to him in the lunchroom and praising him for his good teaching skills, Principal Mullins decides to stop in and scold Dewey for his use of music in the lesson. This, to me, dates the movie the most. Even in 2003 education was beginning to focus less on traditional methods and more on the multi-modal learned and interdisciplinary approaches. However, the principal of the state’s best elementary school marches in upon hearing music one day and demands that Dewey “stick to the curriculum”. She makes it perfectly clear she isn’t a supporter of anything even remotely creative. Lovely.

At this point, I’ve given up trying to figure out how he’s survived several weeks in this role. There are so many things that would have given him away that I am beyond listing them all. We’ve left any realm of reality and so I’m just trying to sit back and enjoy Jack Black doing that weird thing with his mouth that isn’t singing but also not emulating a guitar. You know that thing.

However, I can’t just watch this happen because I am so stuck on the fact that he was found out, the police were there, feet away from him, he confessed the whole thing, and somehow he managed to just go home and eat a bowl of cereal. There is no way that he wouldn’t just go straight to jail. I’m frustrated by this, but then the next scene shows all the kids alone in their classroom with no teacher again and I’ve just…given up. Until the kids then sneak out of school and tell the bus driver to go pick up their teacher at his house. Joan Cusack does a wonderful job of portraying what everyone in the audience is feeling at that moment when she marches into her office full of furious parents, throws her hands up in the air, and, half-hysterical, laughs as she tells them, “I’ve just been informed that all of your children are missing.”

As insane as the premise and the details of this movie are, the last scene is one of the most beautiful things ever filmed. I vaguely remember watching a ‘how it was made’ feature on my DVD when I was younger and the director explains that the kids really all did play their instruments. Every time I see the battle of the bands sequence I remember what it was that true me (and no doubt countless others) to this movie in the first place. Just to see those kids rocking up there, kicking butt, is one of the coolest things ever. To see that as the culminating scene after watching them learn and practice and transform really bring the whole wonderful feeling of this movie home.

Rating:

Fool on the Hill:

This is an extremely influential movie with a wonderful message, tons of laughs, and a really cool attitude. This is one of my favourite films of all time and I think everyone ought to see it at least once! Even if you aren’t a huge fan of Jack Black, this movie has so many things to offer and it is so wild and fun that it’s impossible to miss.