Jack Black....                  Dewey Finn

Joan Cusack....                Principal Rosalie Mullins

Mike White....                 Ned Schneebly

Sarah Silverman....          Patty

Joey Gaydos....               Zack, the lead guitar player

Maryam Hassan....          Tomika, the shy singer

Kevin Clark....                Kevin, the drummer

Rebecca Brown....           Katie, the bass player

Robert Tsai....                 Lawrence, the keyboard player

Caitlin Hale....                 Marta, the backup singer

Aleisha Allen....               Alicia, the backup singer

Miranda Cosgrove....       Summer, the band manager

Zachary Infante....          Gordon, the special effects wiz

James Hosey....              Marco, the computer genius

Angelo Massagli....          Frankie, head of security

Cole Hawkins....             Leonard, band security

Veronica Afflerbach....    Eleni, the groupie

Jordan-Claire Green....    Michelle, the groupie

Directed by Richard Linklater.  Written by Mike White.

This is one of those movies that looks terrible in the trailers and then comes out of nowhere to surprise you.  The School of Rock seems like just another teacher-goes-toprep-school-andteaches-snooty-kids-about-life movie: like Dead Poets Society or The Emperors Club, but its not that at all.  The film follows Dewey Finn (Jack Black), a person obsessed with rock and roll who gets fired from his band because he believes himself to be a much better guitarist than he is.  He does twenty-minute solos and thinks he can get the audience going enough for him to body surf, which he doesnt, and results on his face.

His roommate Ned (Mike White) and Neds girlfriend Patty (Sarah Silverman) tell him that he needs to come up with his share of the rent or he has to go.  So when a school calls asking for Neds services as a substitute teacher, Dewey thinks this the perfect example to get the money he needs.  After arriving and meeting the schools uptight Principal Rosalie Mullins (Joan Cusack) he starts his job as the new fifth grade teacher. 

After a day or two of just sitting around, Dewey hears the kids in their music class and realizes that he can teach them rock and bet his old band in the battle of the bands competition.  He then convinces the class to help him because he leads them to believe that its a school requirement and it will help them get into Harvard.  Dewey then teaches them all about rock and assigns them all jobs based on their skill.  He fills the band with amazingly talented kids and then fills the necessary jobs of security, roadies, groupies, and of course a stylist.

The School of Rock never condescends to the kids.  Dewey never criticizes them for being different, and the film never does either.  Most of the kids have a little back story, we hear about or see each of their parents and how they interact with their kids.  Of course the parents never understand but it helps the movie move along.  Dewey also helps each of them hone their skills, he even encourages them to go against their parents to help him win this competition.  Zack (Joey Gaydos), Tomika (Maryam Hassan), Summer (Miranda Cosgrove), and Lawrence (Robert Tsai) receive most of the attention and deservedly so because they, like the entire child cast, are all very talented.

The film has been crafted by two people who have been called independent filmmakers, but the truth is that only the films director, the great Richard Linklater, has stayed in the independent realm.  The writer is Mike White who wrote last years The Good Girl, with Jennifer Aniston, and Orange County, also with Black.  Mr. White made this movie specifically for Jack Black and it shows; all of the humor is obviously designed for him and pulls it off with flying colors.