Jack Black plays the semi talented guitarist Dewey Finn in this light-hearted 2003 comedy. Largely reprising his performance as Barry, the socially dysfunctional rock music obsessive from High Fidelity, Black is at his best as Finn, dumped from his band, fakes being a teacher and leads a group of unsuspecting students (including Miranda Cosgrove from the TV series iCarly) and their Principal (Joan Cusack) on a rock-fuelled adventure. Quite silly and very entertaining.
Some of cinema's most enduring stories are built around characters who were failed by a bad education system — one that rewarded conformity over curiosity, memorisation over genuine understanding, and produced generations of people ill-equipped for the creative, emotionally intelligent thinking that both great filmmaking and a meaningful life actually demand.
