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B L A C K I S B L A C K . . .
Stardom is what actors dream of, but it isn’t really something they can plan for. When it happens, it happens - call it chemistry, serendipity, timing, the triumph of the inevitable… And it’s happening to Jack Black with School of Rock.
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…JACK BLACK, THAT IS - ACTOR, MUSICIAN AND, WITH SCHOOL OF ROCK, NOW FINALLY
A FULLY FLEDGED STAR. ELEANOR SINGER TAKES A CLASS AND FEELS THE NOIZE.
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Over the past few years, the Santa Monica-born actor has picked up a following (and a lot of critical acclaim), gaining the kind of respect accorded to actors rather than stars. In Orange County, he was the stoner brother who all but stole the film out from under
ROCK ‘N‘ ROLL HIGH
Jack Black plays supply teacher Dewey Finn, who finds an unusual way to connect with the upper-crust kids in his class. Black with (left to right) Robert Tsai, Joey Gaydos, Jr, Kevin
Clark and Rebecca Brown.
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Colin Hanks. And in the Farrelly Brothers’ untypically sweet Shallow Hal, he may have played the title role, but it was Gwyneth Paltrow and her prosthetics that got the attention. Poor Jack: always the best man, never the groom.
Not any more. This autumn’s stateside sleeper, School of Rock, looks set to roll out the red carpet of stardom for Black, who gets to play a part that could have been written for him. Which is not surprising because, as it turns out, it was.
School of Rock is one of those ideas that could have gone pear-shaped in other hands. But, with Scott Rudin as producer to keep it on track, director Richard Linklater and writer Mike White to give it the edge it needed, and Black to provide the star power, it’s the kind of film that can be counted on to draw in kids, adults and even those movie buffs who have followed Linklater’s career since his Austin indie days with Slacker and Dazed and Confused.
The part that Black plays is not, at the outset, that different from his previous roles in Shallow Hal, Orange County - or, for that matter, High Fidelity, the film which first brought him to international attention. His character, Dewey Finn, is a loser - plus a guy who lives, breathes and sleeps rock ‘n’ roll. Despite his relative youth, he is a rock dinosaur who likes nothing better than to belt out the kind of 17-minute guitar solo usually played by guys in their 50s who still dress like they were 20 (or, in the case of Angus Young of AC/DC, one of Dewey’s heroes, still wear their school uniforms).
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