School of Rock (PG-13, 2003)

Jack Black plays Dewey Finn, a musician who doesn't just live for rock -- he barely acknowledges that there is anything else. Like the music he loves, Dewey is loud, immature, messy, self-absorbed, passionate, incapable of complying with any authority, rule, or attempt at civilization, and just about irresistible. So he is astonished when he is fired by his band. And when his best friend Ned (screenwriter Mike White), a former rocker-turned-substitute teacher, says he will have to move out if he does not start paying rent. When Dewey intercepts a call from Principal Mullins (Joan Cusack) offering Ned a substitute teacher position for fifth graders at a posh prep school, he accepts and shows up pretending to be Ned. The kids and Dewey learn something new through the experience.

If there was ever someone born to portray the true spirit of rock and roll, it is Jack Black. That is what SCHOOL OF ROCK needed, and that is just what he does.

This is by far the most accessible and conventional film from director Richard Linklater (Waking Life, Dazed and Confused) and White (Chuck and Buck, The Good Girl), neither of whom are known for heartwarming, feel-good movies. But that is what this is, a sort of To Sir With Love crossed with This is Spinal Tap. Black is enormously entertaining and the kids are terrific.