Movie Review: Rock School

By Maura Reilly Jun 4, 2005, 4:02 GMT

Don’t be put off by the premise for the documentary Rock School.  There was that semi-sweet 2003 movie with Jack Black called School of Rock which is loosely based on the same actual School of Rock but it was so far off the mark as to how things really go there.  Rock School the documentary explores the program Paul Green started in Philadelphia in 1998 to teach 8-18 year olds how to play rock and roll.  Director Don Argott shot this himself over the course of a number of months on handheld camera, interviewing students, parents, teachers, and Paul Green, the enduring egomaniac.  What draws them all together is the love for music and the fellowship that comes from performing in front of a live audience. 
 
The movie opens with a black screen and titles and first thing you hear is this amazing guitar rift.  When the picture comes up, it's a 10 year old wailing away and the audience gasps in amazement.  That's CJ, guitar virtuoso/future rock god.  Granted, CJ is a bit of a prodigy, not the usual student to grace the School of Rock.  There are the gifted kids like CJ and Puritan cum songstress Madi, the ones who have true talent that Green is able to challenge and stimulate and the kids that maybe don't have the chops but persevere and find a home amongst the other "misfits."  Something interesting to see is how Stage Moms take on an interesting, darker persona. Think Mrs. Cleever meets Sharon Osbourne.
 
Green himself is a talented musician who admits is a better teacher than rocker.  He's got an ego as big as all outdoors and uses scare tactics more often then not to get the kids to work.  Some equate his temper tantrums and foul language as real life exposure for the wannabe musicians. Others point fingers and say the asylum is being run by an inmate.  What you can't argue with is the success of the students. The high point of the movie is watching a group of the A-Level students travel to Germany and perform complicated Frank Zappa songs before a festival audience of Frank's hardcore fans and blowing them away.
 
This is a good film, though I found myself wanting to explore more of the rehearsal process at the school and less on Green’s pontificating on genius of classic Rock. There is a soundtrack available now that includes tracks where the kids play with the likes of Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, and Ann Wilson.  It is rated R for language so don't take the younger members of the family.  What I want to know is why there wasn’t a School of Rock when I was a kid?  I can rock, hard if needed.  Is there an Adult Night School version in the works?

You can view media from the movie in our database.