SCHOOL OF ROCK
I don't like dumb comedies. I'm not particularly a Jack Black fan, although I loved him in Mars Attack. I'd heard so much from so many different people praising School of Rock that I went ahead and rented it this weekend. (Also, Rose told me in the video store that all the kids played their own instruments ... very important to me as one of the things that I hated about Freaky Friday was watching that girl pretend to play her guitar twice as fast as the music was going. Thinking about this I just realized I constantly am asking Hannah to tell me if guitar players are really playing or Rose to do the same with the drums whenever we watch movies. I loved About a Boy but would have loved it much less if Hannah had told me that Hugh Grant was faking the guitar ... which he didn't and which was why the music was so simple I'm sure.)
What surprised me was that it was not what I expected at all. I expected the vulgarity and stupidity of Orange County with attempts for a laugh a minute. School of Rock actually was a sweet movie with rockin' music and ultimate respect for the characters. Yes it was a little stupid and predictable but those are forgivable faults compared to the entertainment we got from watching it. Most of all I liked the stubborn adherence to the purity of rock. Dewey Finn (Black) repeatedly gets the kids on track when they don't remember what rock is all about (scoring chicks? getting wasted?) ... rock is about "stickin' it to the man" and "givin' an awsome, rockin' show." Can't argue with that.
