FILM REVIEW: SCHOOL OF ROCK
Black is back

By Jack Black, TheShortStraw film critic

NY, NY (TheShortStraw.com)--Jack Black is back. And it's about time. The actor that so superbly portrayed a manic music store clerk in "High Fidelity," to the utter delight of orgasmic audiences across the globe, outshining the yet again disappointing John Cusack, here reaches heights not seen in cinema since the likes of-dare we say it--Sir Laurence Olivier and Spencer Tracy.

Over the years, Black has been turned down for parts that were ultimately given to far less talented actors.

A blaring example is Shine, for which Geoffrey Rush won the Best Actor Oscar. One can only wistfully imagine what Black may have achieved in the same role. Or take Will Smith's usurping of the part of Ali so suited for Black, for which Smith later unashamedly won a Best Actor nomination.

One can only wonder, had Black and Marlon Brando vied for On the Waterfront (for which Brando most surprisingly won an Oscar in 1954), would Black again have been so dismally overlooked?

You get the idea of the devious underworld known as Hollywood, where bribes and dubious connections rule.

There are many who say that Black is so talented he can take on female parts as well, and, yet again, he was disgracefully passed over in favor of Salma Hayek for Frida (2002).

Yet, Mr Black has remained surprisingly non-bitter about the injustice, and has-thankfully for us, the viewers-persevered.

Which leads us to his most current role (which miraculously wasn't stolen from him by the likes of Sean Penn or Robert de Niro).

Here, Black ingeniously plays Dewey Finn, a rock guitarist thrown out of his own band who ends up taking the place of a friend as a substitute school teacher. Finn proceeds to throw the curriculum out the window and forms a band from his fifth graders (who until then pandered to stuffy parents and their stuffy musical tastes) at the snobbish Horace Green prep school that would give Black Sabbath and AC/DC ass-kicking competition.

The plot, like all great things, sounds simple enough, but isn't. The script, credited to Mike White but thought up and subtly guided along by Black, has enough twists and turns to make Joyce read like Sydney Sheldon. Yet it's the astounding acting by Black that gives this movie an early Oscar feel and, in the view of this critic, a spot in the top five of the greatest movies of all time, hovering at or near number one.

There are quite a few extras in the background such as Joan Cusack (the school principle), Mike White (the roommate) and the students, including the newcomer Joey Gaydos Jr. as the class guitarist, but it's Black that steals the show. One can only wonder what Black will tackle next. Will he at long last not be overlooked for roles in major productions? Will he perhaps play the leading man of a searing war drama? Or George Bush Sr in the upcoming epic, "If Only I'd Been Impotent?" Who can say? The only certainty is that Mr Black's versatile range is beyond dispute.

Black himself says he may go behind the camera, get involved in production or buy a studio or two. The man is clearly as ambitious as he is talented. So far, the dimwits running Hollywood have given him lacklustre parts, but with School of Rock, let it be said: Move over Jack Nicholson, your replacement has arrived.

Copyright © 2004, TheShortStraw