Review of “School of Rock” (2003)

A man named Dewey is performing with a rock band at a club. He jumps into the crowd, but gets hurt. After a little time has gone by, Dewey’s roommates wake him up to complain about the rent situation, which is due soon. But Dewey is defensive about it. Shortly after that, his band votes him out of the group.

When Horace Green Prep School calls for a substitute teacher position, asking for Ned Schneebly, Dewey claims he is Ned and takes the position. He teaches the children his own curriculum, though, and trains them to be rock band performers. He also has the students hide their music from the principal, Ms. Mullins, who is pretty strict and sophisticated.

Different students have different roles for performing rock. Some play guitar and the base, some sing, some perform security to keep their music secret, and a girl named Summer is the band manager. They practice a lot, but also receive their education through Dewey’s pre-recorded videos.

Unaware of what he was teaching the students, Ms. Mullins invites Dewey to go out for drinks. She announces that there will also be a parent-teacher night, which Dewey fears as he worries that the parents will find out that he doesn’t want anybody else to know that their children he’s been teaching them music and that he impersonated the real Ned Schneebly.

I must admit how great this movie was, especially the humor presented. I laughed my brains out several times, particularly since Dewey acted so chill and unprofessional in a funny manner. Jack Black did a fantastic job with the comedic portrayal of a substitute “teacher.” Aside from the immature questions he asked Ms. Mullins, Dewey also took a student’s sandwich and ate it. Obviously, that would not be funny in real life.

Another humorous moment was when Ms. Mullins caught music playing in the classroom Dewey taught, and he claimed that he played a math song on his guitar to teach the students. But he really had played hard rock.

Besides the slapstick, the film also taught some things about rock music, which was very interesting. The advice was also useful, too, like to use your mind and other important parts of your body, both external and internal, to improve your music and singing skills. I feel like a good number of those could apply to learning rock in real life.

There were also a lot of neat twists and turns, especially later in the movie. I won’t spoil them, though. But some of the content was a bit predictable, too.

I would rate “School of Rock” 5 out of 5 stars. If you love slapstick, and especially rock, this movie would satisfy you very much.