School of Rock

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The School of Rock was made by gifted veterans of the American indie scene, but it's still the most unlikely great movie of the year.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's a bravura, all-stops-out, inexhaustibly inventive performance. I don't know how much was improvised, and how much comes from White's sharp screenplay, but Black may never again get a part that displays his mad-dog comic ferocity to such brilliant effect. He, and the movie, kick ass.

Time Richard Corliss

Three of the hippest indie film princes make a perfect commercial comedy.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

First and foremost a very funny film, and a very pleasant one that doesn't really have a villain. Credit for its hilarity goes largely to Black, who gives the performance of his career as a character who might have seemed merely coarse and crude in less gifted hands.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This joyous farce is a big, big deal, and Jack Black is nothing less than majestic as a scruffy, irreverent rocker passing himself off as a pedagogue in a private school.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

An exuberant, raucous and thoroughly endearing comedy

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

All Black, all the time, and could easily have been an exhausting mess. But the movie is coherent, hilarious and surprisingly sweet.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Crowd-pleasing, feel-good stuff.

Slate David Edelstein

For all its slickness, School of Rock has a let's-put-on-a-show quality that touches you in the most direct way a movie can. It's as if the filmmakers had said, "I'd like to teach the world to kick butt--in perfect harmony."

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A movie for almost everyone, from boomer parents (who remember their teens and twenties) to their teenage kids (who can't wait to get started with same). And if there's anyone who can bring so many into the same mosh pit, it's Black, who so occupies the role you can't believe he's acting.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Linklater, whose previous movies include "Slacker," "Before Sunrise," and "Waking Life," may be the most versatile director of his generation. School of Rock is his most unabashedly mainstream movie by far, and yet it’s commercial in the best way.

Film Threat K.J. Doughton

School of Rock kicks ass. It's one movie that definitely goes to eleven.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

As far from "Slacker" as you could possibly get and still be using a motion-picture camera, The School of Rock is nonetheless pure Linklater, pure rock & roll, and pure fun. Gabba, gabba, hey!

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

If quirky, independent, grown-up outsider filmmakers set out to make a family movie, this is the kind of movie they would make. And they did.

USA Today Mike Clark

It plays even more like a bent version of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man" for the new millennium. Slinging a line of bull but displaying genuine affection for the youngsters he's bamboozling.

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

An unexpectedly exuberant, only mildly subversive celebration of music, learning, and going all out for what you love.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

School of Rock may be to Black what "The Nutty Professor" was to Jerry Lewis, or "Groundhog Day" was to Bill Murray - that rare, perfectly tailored opportunity to play against one's broadest impulses. Not to neutralize them, necessarily, but to tame them and turn them into something very human and charming.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Utterly adorable.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

The movie is the cinematic equivalent of a near-perfect three-minute pop song. It makes you laugh, smile and tap your toes over a brisk 88 minutes, and when it's finished, you're ready to hit repeat.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Though tagged as the director's bid for commercial success, School Of Rock is as philosophical in its own way as "Slacker" or "Waking Life." It was made by people who not only know the music well enough to create magnificent flowcharts around it, but also understand how a simple, soul-stirring rock song can seem revolutionary.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Takes a clever premise and Black's unflagging manic energy and comes up with a pleasing mainstream comedy that uses new people and attitudes to entertain in old-fashioned ways.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film hits another comic mother lode in the byplay between Black and Cusack.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Jack Black is consistently hilarious--and not just in his dreams of moshpit glory.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The kids, all real musicians performing, are wonderful, and so is Black; Joan Cusack is both charming and funny as the principal.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A very funny for-kids-of-all-ages delight that should catapult Mr. Black straight to the top of the A-list of Hollywood funnymen.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

In its cornball "Let's put on a show!" crudeness, its Cuisinart collapsing of rock history, and its reduction of the ambiguous, libidinal revolt led by Elvis and Mick and Johnny Rotten and Kurt Cobain to the level of pampered middle-school posturing, School of Rock is a clever and sometimes a beautiful thing.

Empire Chris Hewitt

The feel-good hit of the year thus far. Be warned, though: if you think a little Jack Black goes a long way, then this isn’t for you.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

One of the year's most consistently entertaining and ingratiating movies, building to an inspirational climax that's as rousing as it is predictable.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Even education can't kill the demon of fun in Black. Enroll in his class and you won't stop laughing.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Linklater powers the film with the energy and attitude and beat of his soundtrack.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The movie is a polished (and irresistible) piece of crowd-pleasing formula and deserves to become a monster hit. But it is also a perfect showcase for the volcanic talents of the rotund comedian/musician/all-around wildman.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's one of the great have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too performances of the year.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

School of Rock, populated by bright-shiny faces given a "Revenge of the Nerds" happy ending, is light and meaningless but never worthless. It merely aspires to be a good time and is just that and nothing more, a grin-worthy buzz that wears off in the parking lot.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Still, the big-show musical payoff is good fun, and Black and his little doppelgangers have it all over "Daddy Day Care."

Variety Dennis Harvey

Combined with hilarious physical business and perfectly overearnest delivery of pseudocool lines like, "Let your fingers do the rocking!," he (Black) pretty much single-handedly keeps the formulaic progress funny.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

A picture with pop's delicious energy yet none of its attendant risk, a flick that no one will love but everyone will like.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Like the particular brand of music Dewey espouses, this is a movie more concerned with exploiting rock than understanding it.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Anyone who loves rock music will appreciate the script's insights into the form and its history.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

The kids -- most of them first-timers cast for natural charisma and musical ability -- steal the show, and a talented supporting cast helps take the edge off Black's manic antics.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Feel-good tripe: a string of clichés lashed together by a formulaic plot that features underwritten characters and sit-com style humor.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Somewhere inside "School" lurks a heartwarming or hilarious movie, perhaps both.