School of Rock

2003

PG-13

1h 50m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

5.8K

YOUR RATING

Rate

POPULARITY

Play trailer

3 Videos

83 Images

Comedy

Music

Fired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his students the finer points of rock 'n' roll. The school's hard-nosed principal is rightly suspicious of Finn's activities. But Finn's roommate remains in the dark about what he's doing.

Directors

Richard Linklater

Writers

Mike White(screenplay by)

Stars

Jack Black

Joan Cusack

Mike White

See production, box office & company info

Videos3

Photos83

Top cast

Dewey Finn

Rosalie Mullins

Ned Schneebly

Patty Di Marco

Summer Hathaway

Zack

Kevin Alexander Clark

Freddy Jones

Katie

Lawrence

Tomika

Alicia

Marta

Billy

Gordon

Marco

Frankie

Leonard

Mr. Green

Directors

Richard Linklater

Writers

Mike White(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews2

Review

Featured review

8.5/10

You are not hardcore unless you live hardcore. The perfect vehicle for Jack Black, a film to show that given the right material he’s a bona fide comedic actor of some worth. Plot has Black as Dewey Finn, a wastrel musician who has no job prospects and who spends his time mooching off of his best mate Ned Sheebly (Mike White). When Dewey is fired from his rock band he’s left in limbo and in danger of being homeless. But when he answers a phone call offering Ned a job assignment, Dewey decides to take it upon himself to impersonate Ned and take the employment himself; as a schoolteacher! So it’s Jack Black in a classroom full of kids, it probably shouldn’t work, and even might seem like some sort of cruel and unusual punishment to anyone with an aversion to Black, but this is feel good nirvana and a paean to rock and roll. It’s perhaps unsurprising that it’s crammed with clichés from the classroom splinter of moviedom, the kids a roll call of characters we have seen numerous times. The spoilt swot, the roughneck, the one suffering parental peer pressure, the weight issue one and on it goes, but boy can they play music when Dewey takes them out of classical mode and into rock central. How nice to find that director Richard Linklater and writer Mike White have managed to rise above the clichés and avoid syrupy fodder, there’s such a zest and earnestness to it all, and the kids acting is high in quality as well, led by the big kid himself, Black on full tilt. But most of all, even as the morals and life affirming threads come wading in with the pulsing rock soundtrack, it’s a very funny picture, the gag quota enormously high. Be it Black trying to bluff the kids, the kids trying to bluff everyone else - or the wonderful Joan Cusack as the scatty stickler for the rules Principal Mullins – a laugh is never far away. Rock on! 8.5/10

John Chard15 Jun, 2014