School of Rock - Cheap Thoughts

I've talked about it before where for some reason, School of Rock ruled at my school, and i don't know anywhere else that had this, but everyone in my school was fucking obsessed with this movie, everytime we got to watch a movie, 90% of the time it was this film. Not to mention this movie introduced me to a lot of rock music as a kid and pretty much shaped my taste of music these days. So safe to say I kind of have a bit of connection to this film, but I realised that since i finished school i haven't actually seen this movie, so I decided to rewatch it and i've gotta say, the movie still holds up really well. *Spoilers Ahead* The film follows Dewey (Jack Black) a wannabee rockstar who poses as his roomate, a substitute teacher at a prestigious elementary school. At first looking for a quick pay cheque but once he realises the kids have a lot of musical talent and puts together his own band for a chance of stardom.

So I this is one of those movies of the early 2000's which has a really obsurd plot and really it only works because they got the right guy to play the role, and Jack Black is that guy. Dewey (Also known as Mr S) has such a passion for Rock that he lives and breathes it, of course he'd come up with an idea this batshit insane, and you buy it because...well it's Jack Black, the guy kinda does live and breathe Rock. I'm not even sure where he comes up with half of the ideas that he does, but man he just knows how to get people on his side. And taking the exploitation of children, fraudulent identity and multiple crimes broken that he commits, thinking about it he does a lot to help these kids. He gives them confidence to be who they are, he teaches them some good life lessons (Gets em into some good music) and really you have to admire the respect he has for these people. He doesn't judge any of them based on their appearance or personality (Minus the nicknames) for him it's all about the talent. The flamboyant kid says he wants to be the stylist, you got it fancy pants. The nerd says he doesn't think he's cool enough to be in a band, show him why his talent makes him the coolest kid in the school, girl has body issues, show her how many people have become legends despite body issues (Including himself) really he is a pretty good role model...again, criminal activity aside.

And do I have to mention how kick ass this soundtrack is? AC/DC, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Metallica, Led Zepplin, it fucking rocks! Hell, the original song they perform at the end really is rock'n'roll. And by the way, yes, all the kids are actually playing the instruments, because rock'n'roll is about being hardcore and stickin' it to the man! But what also makes a plot like this works is that while Dewey feels he's in the right, everyone else obviously realises how stupid and even a little psychotic all of this is, including Sarah Silverman's character, who we're ironically supposed to be against but really, she is in the right the whole time. Her boyfriend's slacker best friend is mooching off of him, is incredibly rude, puts his job on the line, exploits children, she's kinda justified in everything she does.

The film is also very funny, my personal favourite scenes are the kids insulting Dewey and Joan Cusack informing all of the parents that they're children are missing. Also there are a lot of little jokes in the movie that i've never really noticed, like when Dewey pretends the kids are terminally ill and they all pretend to be sick, one of them is already on the floor pretending to be dead, that is friggin hilarious.

Basically put, the movie doesn't have a revolutionary plot or a deep and introspective message, it's just a blast, a fun movie that is worth watching multiple times and I honest to god will love it until the day I die. 9/10.

-Danny