A Waldo and Wally Movie Review On...

BY WALDO (film geek)
School of Rock is about a long in the tooth wannabe rock star, Jack Black as Dewey, that gets kicked out of his own band before the big payday, the Battle of the Bands contest.

That’s when Black pretends to be his substitute teacher roommate and takes a teaching job to pay his share of the rent. At first it’s lazy city but when he realizes the kids are decent musicians he cooks up a plan to use them as his band in the Battle of the Bands.

The script is light and breezy by Mike White (Chuck and Buck, The Good Girl). He also plays the doormat roommate who’s dating domineering Sarah Silverman. Silverman gets on Dewey for being a free loader and not having a job or contributing to society. He might
not have a job per se. But his contribution to the world is to rock!

This movie is all Jack Black. It seeps and oozes his facial ticks, roving eyeballs and wild physical comedy. But it also oozes his passion for music. And that’s what he gets across to the kids. That passion moves mountains. Even if it is fueled by the need to stick it to the man.

The story is fairly by the numbers and predictable but the treat is watching Black revel in his element, not unlike his record shop employee character in High Fidelity. Another amazing thing about the movie is that they used real child prodigy musicians instead of
child actors.

The climax was somewhat predictable in it’s golly gee, we learned a lesson, payoff and the final performance was given short shrift and transitioned into a more subdued but still entertaining denouement. But the music was just toe-tapping catchy enough to take you
along for the ride.

It wasn’t as dependent on the music as say Hedwig and the Angry Inch but maybe more along the lines of Spinal Tap. The music gets you into the story but they humor and the gifted actors breathe life into the world of music that’s been explored time and time again.

This movie is all Jack Black as a fish out of water and frankly, it sings.

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