The weekend’s top movie, School of Rock, is perfect for what it is: a funny wisp of a premise played out with wit, sweetness, and seeming spontaneity. The beauty of it is how unlabored it all seems–and also, contrary to what you might expect, the fact that it’s been kept clean and family-friendly. Jack Black says in this interview that
Just because you take out the cuss words doesn’t mean you have to be less funny. In fact, I think I was more funny to make up for it. You get more intense. You have to communicate those cusswords through your face muscles.
You won’t mind that it’s formulaic and predictable and takes full advantage of the cuteness of its kid costars. You won’t care that Black has yet to show he can master more than one character (i.e., the same guy he played in High Fidelity). You’ll fall hook, line, and sinker for its seductive vision of the rock band as an ideal little society: a meritocracy that’s also all-inclusive.
Just go see it, and let the critic in you take the night off. I haven’t had this kind of effortless fun at a movie since the first time I saw Clueless.