Have You Seen Junior's Grades?

I finally got around to seeing Jack Black's latest movie, School of Rock, and it's alright; in fact, it's a gas! I'd never heard of Black before Shallow Hal, but this movie, which makes full use of his dubious but still enjoyable talents, as well as his knowledge of rock and roll, ensures that he's going to stick around for awhile.

Black plays Dewey Finn, a rock guitarist who gets cut from his band and needs a job to help his roommates pay the rent. Dewey poses as a teacher to get a substitute job at an elementary prep school, where he gets a class of musically adept fifth-graders. In short order, Dewey then encourages the students to learn all about rock and roll and to form a band; he then spends afternoons rehearsing with them. In the mornings, he teaches them rock theory (spin away, Lester Bangs!), passes out classic rock CDs as homework, and gets them hooked on flamboyant guitar solos and heavy drum patterns. Everything goes well until Dewey's charade is exposed, and then . . . well, I don't want to spoil it for you.

Exactly how Dewey is exposed as a fraud is the weakest part of the movie, but the rest of it is silly, well-paced fun. School of Rock takes a few old ideas and turns them into a delightfully hilarious movie. Black's vast knowledge of rock isn't completely thorough - the movie has no references to the Beatles and the Stones, and no one who's never heard of Family (;-D) can ever call oneself a true rock expert - but it's damned thorough enough. Hearing these kids rock while such a goofy non-adult like Black fronts them is probably the most fun you'll have at the movies this fall. You just might become an AC/DC fan after leaving the theater. Or maybe not. You'll also get to see the always delightful Joan Cusack, who plays the prep school principal, submit to her inner coolness by singing along to Stevie Nicks's "Edge of Seventeen!"

Class dismissed.