Film Screening 6th March, 2004

Poster for School of Rock

School of Rock 

8:00 PM, 6th March, 2004
No Guests

  • PG
  • 108 mins
  • 2003
  • Richard Linklater
  • Mike White
  • Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack, Miranda Cosgrove

Dewey Finn (Black) is in trouble. He owes his roommate (White) over $1000 in back rent, and his gargantuan ego has just got him kicked out of his band, which was his only source of income. Desperate for some quick cash, Dewey takes a job as a substitute teacher at a reputable prep school, posing as his roommate. Dewey (now "Ned Schneebly") has absolutely no teaching experience, so he forms a band with several of his students and assigns the rest peripheral duties such as roadies and groupies. School of Rock is undeniably a Jack Black vehicle, but in the best possible way. As if he knew the cynicism with which the very tailor-made premise might be met, he milks every comic setup for all it's worth, much like he did in his supporting role in Mike White's earlier Orange County, but School of Rock has a much stronger script and much more Jack Black. Whilst pretty heavy on the rock cliches and occasionally guilty of humanising small children, School of Rock shouldn't disappoint fans of Jack Black or of wacky comedy in general.

Tom Brewster

Poster for American Wedding

American Wedding 

9:00 PM, 6th March, 2004

  • MA
  • 96 mins
  • 2003
  • Jesse Dylan
  • Adam Herz
  • Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Eugene Levy, Seann William Scott

Jim (Biggs) proposes to his girlfriend Michelle (Hannigan) after their final days of college. The majority of this film is concerned with the preparations for the wedding, especially the ill-fated attempts to prevent Stifler (William-Scott) from learning that the wedding is going to take place. Unlike another third part of a trilogy on the program this semester, American Wedding is no piece of classic cinema. It builds on the success of the first two in the way that most comedy sequels do, by recycling the best bits of the last two films. So there's a scene where something disgusting is eaten, a scene where Jim embarrasses himself in public, Stifler's mom makes an appearance, and so forth. But the various pieces all fall together to produce a film that has a good grasp of what makes people laugh, and, perhaps surprisingly for a gross-out comedy, a good sense of heart. While you won't learn anything new about the human condition from this film, you will have a good time watching it. A final note of trivia: the director of this film, Jesse Dylan, is the great Bob Dylan's son!

Robert Ewing