SCHOOL OF ROCK

Film Four · Comedy · 11 Aug 2010 · by: Film 4

Jack Black stars in Richard Linklater's comedy as Dewey Finn, a slacker rock musician who dreams of the big time. Then his group sack him and his live-in landlady suggests he might actually start paying rent. Bluffing his way in to a job as a supply teacher at an expensive private school, he discovers his class have some musical ability. And if he can harness it to the world of rock and enter them in a Battle of the Bands, he will have found a purpose.

Black's breakthrough role is supported by the smart acting of the ensemble cast of kids, led by Miranda Cosgrove as Summer Hathaway, and Joan Cusack as Rosalie Mullins, the school head but the film belongs to Black, who brings an initial degree of pathos to his character who fails to understand why the world can't appreciate his talents. And when he finds his niche as a teacher of a subject he loves (but isn't necessarily on the curriculum), he literally blossoms on screen. The ending isn't hard to guess, despite the obstacles placed in his way, but the film succeeds because it refuses to be patronising or cheap, instead relying on the audience having a brain as well as a heart.