Cinepals - SCHOOL OF ROCK Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

For the first time, Jaby & Michael watch one of Jack Black's best films, "School of Rock," which follows a struggling musician who poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school and forms a band with his students to compete in a local rock competition. This film is directed by Richard Linklater (Boyhood & Dazed and Confused), & it stars: ack Black (Kung Fu Panda series & Jumanji series), Joan Cusack (Working Girl & Toy Story 2), Mike White (Nacho Libre & The White Lotus), Sarah Silverman (Wreck-It Ralph & A Million Ways to Die in the West), Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly & Despicable Me series), Joey Gaydos Jr. (The School of Rock & School of Rock: The Musical), Kevin Clark (The School of Rock), Maryam Hassan (The School of Rock), and Caitlin Hale (The School of Rock). Join our Patreon https://www.Patreon.com/JabyKoay or become a YouTube member for access to full length watchalong reactions! SOCIAL MEDIA: ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals ~MICHAEL~ Insta: @booseisloose

Senna. Pals. Believe it or not, we have not watched School of Rock yet. This is going to be our first time ever. I just found out it's directed by Richard Linklater who did Boyhood. He's got an interesting career. Most recently he did Hitman, which I actually quite enjoyed. Not a reaction to that, just a casual watch by myself.

Sometimes we do that. School of Rock. We're going to jump into this. Here we go. The energy on the sky is so amazing. Amazing. Yeah, honestly. Like, I'm just winded watching him. I know.

Take five. You want to go? All right. That was a good class. That was beautiful. Great class. Take it easy. That was amazing.

That was very, very, like, exceptional. Oh, my God. Goodness, gracious. That was exceptional. Please tell me that got nominated for, like, awards and things like that, right? Like, that worn things. Nothing for the Academy Awards. Oh, my God.

Really? like teen choice, that kind of stuff. That's disappointing because this is such a good film. Yeah. I think it came out today. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, that would be something that would get Oscar nominations. Because it's like, it's in that pocket of time where maybe it couldn't be taken seriously

and was perceived in a particular genre, especially with it being Jack Black. When Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came on the scene, it was the first martial arts film of that kind to be nominated for Best Picture. Right. You know, and then like, that was like kind of a breakthrough moment of like, oh, my God, that could happen? like a martial arts movie could get nominated, and then some 20 years later,

Michelle Yo, again, in a martial arts film, they'd get Best Picture for everything everywhere once. Yeah, so I think that, you know, if it was today, it would definitely, because it's, it hit everything it needed to. The only thing I missed out on, and it's selfish of me to want it, but I wanted to see that performance he described in the classroom.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, his song. Because you're right, because the encore, we were expecting, like, their song, Which, yeah, that makes sense for, like, the movie and, like, the outro, you know, play a song. We already had the original song that the kids did and absolutely shredded. And then, you know, you play out a song that everybody knows and everybody's, like, super hype on it. But I agree.

It would have been nice to see, like, the actual ideation of his performance. But I guess it's two on the nose. It hit a lot of the major beats that you typically get in, like, the classic film structure. And I thought they did it so phenomenally because I, for the most part, forgot about that structure. while watching the film. Up until the hero loses it all moment, I'm like, okay. Yeah, I'm reminded again of like how this all kind of works out.

But it was done so wonderfully because when it coalesced, like I was feeling it with the movie. My face was literally hurting from smiling so much. I was so unbelievably happy from start to finish. What I like about this film is it's really feel good all the way through. Even the moment where the hero loses it all, it's not like a really like big gut-wrenching moment. And it doesn't last long.

It doesn't wallow in that, like loss it really is like all right the jig is up the truth is out and then we just cut straight to the kids are like all right cool we're going to the concert that's what we're doing there wasn't like a whole stretch of like him being down on himself and you know kind of being in the negative part of it it was just largely uplifting throughout which lent to that permanent smile encrusted on my face sure i think the movie's message was really beautiful of just like do the things that make you happy find the things that make you happy and you know As a kid in school, it doesn't always have to be about grades and sticking to the structure

and sometimes thinking outside of the box and doing something creative like rock and roll is what your child needs or what a person needs to be a better person. Yeah, definitely learning how to explore free of structures. That's a tough lesson because how do you teach something like that? Yeah, yeah. And I thought that was actually really cool to impart on the audience. they resisted the temptation to give into the romantic angle

between Jack Black and Joan Cusack. Yeah. And I feel two ways about it. On the one hand, I'm like, that was smart because we expect it and they didn't give it to us. Because the movie doesn't need that. It's not about that. On the other hand, I'm like, but they totally were made for each other in a weird cosmic kind of sense. I would have loved to see

like Jack Black's character pull Joan Cusack's character a little more out of her shell. Clearly she had a little bit of an arc, but you're right. If they'd gone into that more romantic, romantic thing and we'd seen her like go full rock and roll or at least a little more rock and roll that would have been really really satisfying yeah the music was great all throughout seeing how he brought the kids together is it was fascinating because like the way he was at

the very beginning it was such an obnoxious thing where he's not paying his rent right but like you can immediately see that he has ambition and he's got some kind of talent like buried in there that is waiting to be seen by the world and so I didn't hate on him for too long when he wasn't paying his rent. And so what he was doing was totally illegal and wrong, but it was so much fun, you know? You're not mad at it because he's just, he's so kind and caring about the kids.

Exactly. And I think that's the best part about his character is like, yeah, he's kind of a slob and a mooch and things like that. But when it came down to it, he never judged any of the kids. Yeah, yeah. Ever. Every single one of them,

he was like, okay, I see what your deal is. I see what you're going through. And I'm just going to talk to you like a normal adult. Yeah. Which sometimes, and I know in my experience with working with kids, sometimes you just got to talk to them like they're an actual person. You know, don't kitty glove them. That's true.

Kids know when you're faking with them. And so, like, being real with them and just being honest and genuine is such a great character trait for Jack Black's character. And he was, he never made the kids feel bad. Yeah, yeah. Not at once. Even when they lost the competition and he had his brief moment of like, oh, man, we lost. He didn't rip into him like, guys, the whole purpose was to win.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and at no point when they were like, just tell him the truth when he's at the parent night. At no point was he like, guys, shut up, like quit narking on me. He was like, you know what? You're right. I should tell the truth. Yeah. He was always honest and genuine with the kids and never mean and didn't like rebuff their ideas, which I thought was really beautiful.

Yeah, I mean, underneath it, he's a good dude. And he's like an essence guru, you know, helping them to find themselves within this realm. I thought that was just awesome. And he did clean up by the end because, you know, that whole ending song was in his place and it was very clean. Yes. You know, comparatively. We didn't really get a resolve on what happened with Shwebel or whatever his name is and his girlfriend. Oh, yeah.

I don't know if they broke up. It's not about them again. I mean, we didn't see her at the end. She wasn't like bopping along at the School of Rock. I guess there's two ways it could have gone. You know, she's like, oh, my gosh, he stood up to me. And then she's there, like, I don't know, doing secretarial work or something like that for the School of Rock. or the ending we got where she's just gone

because he stood up to her and as much as she said that she wanted him to stand up that's always the funny character in every film or just like in life sometimes you have that person that's like why don't you stand up for yourself why don't you stand up for yourself? Why don't you stand up for yourself against everyone but me?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's definitely who she was. Yeah. You know, ragging on him and walking all over him and being like, you know, stand up for yourself, stand up for yourself, stand up for yourself, but always still wanted to be the person in charge in the relationship, which is like a really toxic trait to have.

So I'm glad she's not stinking around. Yeah, I have two minds about it. I see what you're saying. That's valid and it makes sense. And for a movie, especially, that works more effectively, is that in real life, you do need structure, some structure in your life, right? And so there's a fine balance to everything. And she's going hard one way.

It's like, well, you got to kind of, you know, go the other way a little bit and have fun in your life. You know, you can't just be all rigid. And that's what was lacking in Shewbel's life. And then Jack Black gave it back to him by the end, which is pretty cool. Yeah. You know, he put him over. I would have loved if they'd had him go full, like...

Full tilt. Full tilt. And, like, brought back the vampire cosplay and things like that that they were talking about in the picture. I think that would have been a nice little nod of like, ah, he's back again. But, you know, to your point, there needs to be balanced. So maybe this is him finding balance where he's actually teaching and looks like a normal adult, but he's also doing rock and roll at the same time. For sure.

It's definitely, it's funny because it does this movie magic thing that is outside the realm of realistic, but it handles things in a realistic way. Like, moment to moment, like what you're talking about, where he's not in that full get-up. He's like handling it like a grown-up would, you know, with a mature attitude of approaching music theory and all that stuff. And then the way the little moments were when he was teaching the kids,

you know, okay, here's what you can do with the piano or in the guitar and whatever. A lot of the interactions just felt like he was dealing with real kids. And so I'm so curious about the behind the scenes that went into this. Yeah, me too. Because it's like, I used to teach kids martial arts and I used to deal with casting, working for casting directors. And I've auditioned tens of thousands of people.

And you see a lot of kids. And, you know, there's this messed up thing in casting called real people casting. Because they don't want to cast actors who are too trained. So they go out and they find real people. This is an actual phrase, an actual term that's used. Yep. And it's awful. And so with kids, like, they come from like this course, this training.

And then they come in, they hit all their marks. They hit all their lines. But there's still something just like not quite right because they're not really kids. They're doing the instructions of a grown-up. And then you get this rando kid who can just be a natural and hits it. And then they booked the job. Yeah. You know?

And it felt like a lot of the kids here that were selected were very naturalistic. It was great. I agree. I'm wondering if they cast more leaning towards, at least for the band members, ones that had musical talent. And then we're like, we can get, we can work the acting bit in. But like the musical talent takes longer to, I mean, not invalidating the effort and energy that goes into acting. Like as an actor, I'd be performers totally understand. But there's a certain degree of like, we can get you to a point where you can say the line in a way.

but, like, we need you to be able to rock this out on a keyboard every single time, every single take. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Which is, like, going to take longer to train up. Yeah. Then, like, memorize the lines. And, like, a lot of their action wasn't highly technical. It's not like they were moving around and hitting marks. They just had to, like, say the lines and have those natural kid interactions.

So I'm sure they were looking for, like, some amount of, like, the kid's natural ability for acting. But I'm sure they started with the musical ability. Yeah. And then lane. I mean, with the exception to Miranda Cosgrove, because I think she's been a big child star for a while. Well, I'm thinking about what you just said. It's fascinating because you're right.

Like, the kids were mostly planted, and they weren't moving around at all. It was more like, okay, this is sort of the overview of what we got to achieve. Jack Black is the one who has to be technically on point because the camera's moving with him everywhere. It's like these very long stretches of film. That's a lot of film to burn through. And so it's kind of genius and technically very creative.

but probably very necessary because you have kids they say don't work with kids don't work with animals well animals are mostly CGI today so this is kind of antiquated but still don't work with kids don't work with animals because there's a limited window with which you can work

versus grown-ups right and so the time to shoot this was very limited each day you had eight hours and you got to make it work what better way to do it than have long takes and just do it like that just do it like a winner every single time there's so many oneers in here

but they're so subtle because it's all reliant on Jack Black. Yes. You notice a one shot when it's like all these crazy interactions and moving around. Like I think Goodfellas has one where they're walking into the club and all the extras are like perfectly choreographed and you have to reset that every time. This was entirely Jack Black just having his moment at the beginning and leaning down and getting each of the kids into camera frame and then coming out of it. So I think you're right. They leaned heavily on Jack Black's technical know-how. and the one-shots to make their days go faster with the kids.

Yeah. Yeah, Richard Linklater, he's a very, his approach always, to me, seems naturalistic. Like, he likes that, he did boyhood, like we talked about earlier. And while I didn't like boyhood, I thought the concept of boyhood was super cool. If you're not familiar with it, he basically had several actors and this kid, and one of those actors was Ethan Hawk, and they would, like, revisit this group once a year and just shoot his life as he grew up for eight years. It was like a project.

And like you actually physically see him grow up, which is like not novel anymore because everyone's got phones. But through the course of a movie, it's actually quite fascinating to see him actually age. I just wish it had a better, you know, plot. We can't have it all, Jabby. We can't have it all. It's just I did.

I thought the movie was quite boring. It was dreadfully boring. But I thought the project itself was so fascinating. Right, the concept. Yeah, and Ethan Hawks, one of my favorite actors. So, yeah, like, to pair Richard Linklater with Jack Black, it's like never in a million years when I think the two would come together. That's such a weird coupling, but it works so effectively. It does.

Yeah. Like, they struck gold. Yeah. Got lightning in a bottle, so to speak, with this one. I love it. This is definitely, like, an instant classic. And I can't believe how much I adore this and how long I waited to actually watch. It's like 20 years removed.

Yeah. 2003. My goodness. 21 years. Wow. Well, better late than even later. You guys, thanks so much for hanging out. I'm Jabby. Coe. This is Michael Boose.

Peace out.