School of Rock is one of the best family films of the decade, being regarded in the top ‘100 funniest movies.’
The film
is about a wannabe rock star, Dewey Finn (Jack Black); he portrays a band leader who feels he holds all the answers to success and to winning ‘The Battle of the Bands,’ until he is thrown out of his own band by the other members of the group.
Dewey crashes out in the apartment he shares with his best friend Ned Schneebly (
Mike White) and Schnabel’s girlfriend Patty Di Marco (Sarah Silverman). Ned Schneebly is employed as a substitute teacher and when Dewey receives a phone call for Ned from Rosaline Mullins (Joan Cusack), the principal at the Horace Green prep school, to take on the role of a substitute teacher, he decides to impersonate him and take the job.
The next day Dewey arrives at the Horace Green prep school as a substitute teacher for the fifth-grade class. But school work is far from his mind and his only concern is stay for his appointed time, to get paid and leave; to this end he gives the fifth grade children continuous free time.
However, he over hears the children from his class practicing music. Realising the musical talent the children have, he decides to turn his class into a band. He convinces them that they will be competing against other schools in a musical competition and that they must keep it secret from the schools principle and also their parents.
Now he becomes a teacher; teaching the history of Rock. To this end he leads the children away from the pop and classical music, teaching Rock and instilling in them the hard, cold and intense meaning of the Rock scene.
The whole film is fully entertaining and it takes you through the roles of the main child actors. Summer Hathaway (Miranda Cosgrove),’ is determined to succeed at any means; Dewey said of her; ‘she could be the first woman President, and I would vote for her.’ Summer is initially assigned the role of a ‘groupie,’ but after promising to inform her mother, Dewey reassigns her has group manager.
Other members of the band consisted of Zack Mooneyham (Joey Gaydos Jr.). He is the shy lead guitarist of the band. Then there is Freddy Jones, (Kevin Clark), somewhat of a rebel, he was the bands drummer. Lawrence (Robert Tsai) the class boffin who transforms into a rock keyboardist. On Bass guitar was Katie (Rebecca Brown), whose nickname in the film is ‘Posh Spice.’
Originally there were only two girl singers with the band; Marta (Caitlin Hale), and Alicia (Aleisha Allen). Tomika (Maryam Hassan), eventually joined the singers when she faced ‘her size’ dilemma.
But Dewey assigns other important roles to the remaining children. Gordon (Zachary Infante), manages the light show during the Battle of the Bands performance. Marco (James Hosey), worked the smoke machine during the performance. Frankie (Angelo Massagli) works on security, and Leonard (Cole Hawkins), also worked on security.
Eleni (Veronica Afflerbach) and Michelle (Jordan-Claire Green) were designated the groupies, but they are also given the task of naming the band; they conclude with ‘
School of Rock.’
Billy (Brian Falduto) was originally assigned to security, but the effeminate boy request to become the band stylist instead.
Later that day Dewey confesses to Ned that he had been pretending to be him and asks Ned to keep it quiet, but Ned tells his girlfriend Patti. Later that evening, while Dewey is in a parents meeting, Ned and his girlfriend appear, where Patti exposes him as a fraud.
The following day, the school children, take the allocated Bus to the ‘Battle of the Bands,’ performance, and on the way call and collect Dewey.
The ‘School of Rock,’ take the stage, and Dewey decides to perform the song ‘Teacher's Pet,’ written by the lead guitarist Zack Mooneyham, instead of his own song.
The ‘School of Rock,’ lose the contest to Dewey’s old band, but the crowd are unhappy with the decision and call for ‘School of Rock.’
Ned Schneebly (Mike White, who was also the writer of the script for school of rock) discarded his girlfriend Patti, and went along to cheer on his friend Dewey Finn.
The ending sequences of the film begin with Summer arguing over a managerial deal on her mobile phone as she enters a building; inside the building we find Dewey Finn coaching the band and Ned Schneebly teaching young children the art of rock. The sign on the wall reads, ‘School of Rock.’
This is an excellent film for anyone of any age and the DVD ‘School of Rock,’ shares its place on my DVD rack and also in my heart.