movie review: school of rock

i picked this up on netflix as an ongoing project (yes, i'm reduced to calling entertainment work) to watch all of richard linklater's work (he's done before sunrise, before sunset, slackers, dazed and confused, waking life). i pretty much got what i expected. this was one of linklater's hollywood movies, and it was successful in it's goals to just be funny and entertain. that's not to say that it didn't exist on any other levels. throughout the movie, linklater treats the kids as if they were adults, in terms of trust and respect. there is an underlying message that even though adults may know more than kids, they have the upperhand in being pure, naive, simple, honest, basically the ideal that we should all seek to achieve. and if the children represent some aspects that we should once again acheive, jack black, who plays the role of teacher/slacker hilariously, is the one that points it out to us. he's the child-adult that is the link between us and the children. he explains what it is that we should be aspiring to, when he is teaching the children, and music is the medium with which he explains it. and what we should aspire to is doing things for the things themselves and not for someone else. you love music for the music and not for the popularity, drugs, sex, or whatever else. fuck posing and pretense, just be your pure self. don't get bogged down by stereotypes and presumptions, but keep your mind open.

okay enough of that bullshit. really though, the movie was good. jack black is a riot. joan cusack is funny in her usual understated psycho role. actually, all the supporting characters were quite good, except for the parents. the kids were good in the sense that they didn't annoyingly play out that 'cutesy kid' thing that's in disney movies. meaning, they could realistically be kids.

7.0