Leave
it to edgy indie auteurs Richard Linklater (director of Waking Life) and Mike White (screenwriter-star of The Good Girl and Chuck & Buck) to take a genre that’s been completely rubbed
into the ground and left for dead by hack after hack and make it into something
fresh and exciting, not to mention really good. That’s just what they do with School
of Rock, a picture that looks like another empty Jack Black vehicle but
turns out to be an insanely entertaining blend of the musically gifted kids
from Camp, the slightly maniacal yet
eager-to-teach educator from Dead Poets
Society, and the private school uniforms (not to mention the hip street
cred) from Rushmore.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Black stars as Dewey Finn, one of
those perpetually broke, 30-something burnouts who is still trying to make it
as a big-time rock star when he should be worrying about getting a real job to
pay his bills. Dewey lives with his best friend and former bandmate-turned-substitute
teacher Ned Schneebly (White), as well as Ned’s bitchy, upwardly mobile
girlfriend Patty (Sarah Silverman), who despises the very sight of our hero
even when he’s on time with the rent.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย When Dewey is booted from his own
band for being too flashy with the guitar solos, he realizes the big $20,000
top prize at the upcoming Battle of the Bands competition has become a pipe
dream. It’s a situation that makes it even easier for Dewey to pretend to be
Ned when the phone rings in search of a substitute teacher for the fifth-grade
class at Horace Green Prep, the best private school in the state.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Dewey figures he can clip on his
finest bow tie, show up, and sleep off his hangover while collecting a fat
paycheck. But that’s not in the cards, as Dewey is cursed with a class full of
Lisa Simpsons — grade-grubbers in constant need of evaluation and reassurance
that they’ll each get into the Ivy League university of their choice. They
demand to be educated, and Dewey eventually complies after spying their musical
abilities in band class. The rest of the film finds Dewey schooling the kids in
the ways of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, while forming a pint-sized rock combo
disguised as a “top secret” class project with that big Battle of the
Bands payday as its lofty goal.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Clichรฉs abound, as they often do in
movies about either a jaded teacher or a classroom full of apathetic kids, but
Linklater, White, and especially Black find a way to keep things perky while
never once allowing their story to drag. A subplot involving Dewey’s hysterical
yet somewhat heartbreaking manipulation of Horace Green’s principal (played by
a very funny Joan Cusack) would derail similar films, but in Rock, it works remarkably well.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Mostly, though, Rock is about Black and the kids. This is a picture that would not
have worked with any other actor in Black’s role. He’s deliciously manic in an
extremely physical performance that literally made me tired just to watch. Do
yourself a favor and pay attention to one of Linklater’s long takes of Black
doing his crazy Jack Black thing and imagine how grueling it must have been to
do more than once or twice.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
kids make their own music in Rock, though
judging from the picture’s press conference at the Toronto International Film
Festival, I don’t think many of them were doing much acting (keyboard player
Robert Tsai isn’t doing a funny Asian accent — it’s for real). Rock is bolstered by great opening
credits, a fun soundtrack, and musical contributions from Shudder to Think’s
Craig Wedren (he wrote the score) and The Mooney Suzuki (they wrote the band’s
anthem).
In The Rundown —
actor-turned-director Peter Berg’s follow-up to the delightfully morbid Very Bad Things —
wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson makes a good case for
people to start taking his new career more seriously than those of
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper or “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan. He plays a
“retrieval expert” named Beck who is quick and powerful enough to,
quite literally, defeat the entire offensive line of an NFL team, should the
situation ever present itself (and it does). But Beck is also an aspiring
restaurateur who agrees to perform the heavily clichรฉd One Last Job for his
vile boss, Walker (William Lucking).
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The job finds Beck headed to Brazil,
where he is to bring back Walker’s son, a college dropout named Travis (Seann
William Scott) who is after a potentially bogus Holy Grail of archeological
wonderment called El Gato Diablo. Which means the rest of the film plays like a
double exposure of Midnight Run and Romancing the Stone, with Rosario Dawson
as a third wheel who helps the boys take on the ruthless slave driver
(Christopher Walken) of a mine town quaintly dubbed Helldorado.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The shockingly restrained Johnson is
legitimately charismatic here, merely because he isn’t trying to be The Rock
(he doesn’t raise the People’s Eyebrow once!). Berg’s direction is solid, if a
little too flashy at times. Dawson’s inflection is the least Brazilian I may
have ever heard, while Ewen Bremner contributes one muddled and funny enough to
be the finest unintelligible movie accent since Brad Pitt’s in Snatch (which, coincidentally, also
featured Bremner).
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The Rundown could have been a really
great action-comedy if its ending were a little less silly and if it had gone
for the R rating. Or even if it had bothered to explain Beck’s hang-up with
guns. Peep the tributes to recent newsmakers Arnold Schwarzenegger (a brief
cameo), Johnny Cash (a song on the soundtrack), and Bob Lonsberry (horny monkey
sounds).
Interested
in raw, unsanitized movie ramblings from Jon? Visit his site, Planet Sick-Boy (www.sick-boy.com),
or listen to him on WBER’s Friday Morning Show.
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2003.
