Rolling Stone magazine celebrated the 20th anniversary of “School of Rock” with a new oral history in which many of the child actors from the Richard Linklater hit film opened up on the tough years they faced after the film’s blockbuster release. The Jack Black-led comedy was a box office hit in 2003 with $131 million worldwide, and it’s widely considered a bonafide comedy classic. Imagine going from Hollywood sensation back to high-school or middle-school teen. That was the reality for many of the “School of Rock” cast.
“It was tough. I came back to school, and I was like a three-headed freak, basically,” said Joey Gaydos Jr., who played lead guitarist Zack “Zack-Attack” Mooneyham in the film. “I came back with all this culture in my brain to a pretty one-horse town outside of Detroit. And I was looked at like a complete weirdo, and that was hard.
“It was tough. I came back to school, and I was like a three-headed freak, basically,” said Joey Gaydos Jr., who played lead guitarist Zack “Zack-Attack” Mooneyham in the film. “I came back with all this culture in my brain to a pretty one-horse town outside of Detroit. And I was looked at like a complete weirdo, and that was hard.
- 9/28/2023
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
It was 20 years ago this month that Jack Black put on a bow tie, walked into a prep school, and told a bunch of fourth graders to get the Led out. His star turn as the lovable loser in Richard Linklater’s School of Rock helped the film gross nearly $20 million when it opened, breaking the record for music-themed comedies at the time. Over the years, it’s inspired a hit Broadway musical, a TV show, and a children’s book, and helped popularize actual School of Rock programs for...
- 9/28/2023
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
A jury has determined that this woman didn't go all Sharknado on Tara Reid. Maryam Hassan was found not guilty today of assaulting the actress in a rage at a London nightclub in November 2012. "Thank you," a tearful Hassan reportedly told the jury after the verdict was read. She then hugged a friend who had been sitting in the courtroom. The 27-year-old did not talk to reporters outside. In addition to being acquitted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, she was also found not guilty of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, having been accused of verbally going off on a bouncer outside the club as well. Per the Daily Mail, which says Hassan...
- 12/13/2013
- E! Online
The cast of School of Rock have reunited ten years after the film's release.
Jack Black posed for photographs with his young co-stars from the 2003 comedy hit at a reunion event in Austin, Texas on Thursday (August 29).
Miranda Cosgrove - who found fame after appearing in the film - also appeared at the event, which saw the cast meet fans before attending a screening and Q&A session.
Cosgrove posted a picture with Black, 44, with the caption: "10 year School of Rock reunion! Sooo good to see everyone :) #greatmemories."
17 stars, including Jordan-Claire Green, Joey Gaydos Jr, Robert Tsai, Kevin Alexander Clark, Aleisha Allen, Maryam Hassan, Caitlin Hale and Rebecca Brown, also attended.
They were joined by writer and star Mike White and director Richard Linklater.
According to Us Weekly, the cast reunited on stage for a performance at the after party.
Earlier this year, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber revealed that...
Jack Black posed for photographs with his young co-stars from the 2003 comedy hit at a reunion event in Austin, Texas on Thursday (August 29).
Miranda Cosgrove - who found fame after appearing in the film - also appeared at the event, which saw the cast meet fans before attending a screening and Q&A session.
Cosgrove posted a picture with Black, 44, with the caption: "10 year School of Rock reunion! Sooo good to see everyone :) #greatmemories."
17 stars, including Jordan-Claire Green, Joey Gaydos Jr, Robert Tsai, Kevin Alexander Clark, Aleisha Allen, Maryam Hassan, Caitlin Hale and Rebecca Brown, also attended.
They were joined by writer and star Mike White and director Richard Linklater.
According to Us Weekly, the cast reunited on stage for a performance at the after party.
Earlier this year, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber revealed that...
- 8/31/2013
- Digital Spy
“Now raise your goblet of rock. It’s a toast to those who rock!” Last night the Austin Film Society hosted a 10th anniversary screening of Richard Linklater’s hard-rocking crowd pleaser School of Rock. Mr. Schneee S.’s whole class came to party, from now heavy weight Nickelodeon star Miranda Cosgrove to Robert Tsai (“You’re a fat loser and you have body odor”) to the back-up singers (Maryam Hassan, Caitlin Hale, Aleisha Allen). Jack Black held court during the terrifically freewheeling Q&A after the screening. When a fan asked him for a song, Black broke into an...
- 8/30/2013
- by Karen Valby
- EW - Inside Movies
Screened
Toronto International Film Festival
"The School of Rock" rocks. This audience-pleaser comes from writer Mike White and director Richard Linklater, names usually associated with independent filmmaking. For that matter, the moviemakers have fun with their own filmography as the movie does comic riffs on the world of slackers, disaffected outsiders and other anti-Establishment types. White and Linklater team up with actor-musician Jack Black to create a high-energy comedy that takes its hero seriously when he declares, "I serve society by rocking!" Paramount has a winner in this Scott Rudin production.
"The School of Rock" gets going slowly as the film's first 20 minutes let Black go over the top to establish his slacker credentials. A hapless and aging rocker with no record deal or even next month's rent to show for years devoted to rock 'n' roll, Black's Dewey Finn is in a bad way. On the same day, he gets fired from his own band and receives a none-too-subtle eviction notice from roommate Ned White), egged on by Ned's exasperated girlfriend, Patty (Sarah Silverman).
Desperate to earn some bread, Dewey pretends to be Ned, who works as a substitute schoolteacher. Dewey takes a job for several weeks at a snooty private elementary school run by anal principal Rosalie Mullins (Joan Cusack). Dewey is content to institute daylong recess until he hears his youngsters play in orchestra class. Impulsively, he decides to mold these musical prodigies into a rock band. He junks the curriculum in favor of rock history, rock music appreciation and a pledge of allegiance that gives him "creative control" of the band.
Watching Black's deadbeat rocker teach a class of uniformed, rigidly disciplined youngsters how to adopt nonconformist, antisocial attitudes proves a rich source of comedy. Watching Dewey teach the theory and practice of rock, we realize this guy really does have an instinct for teaching -- as long as the subject inspires his passion. Soon his kids start acting like kids, not miniature adults, and Dewey dons the mantle of adult responsibility for the first time.
The filmmakers threw out a wide casting net to snare talented young musicians and singers to play the preteens in Dewey's high-voltage rock band, kids who can musically "kick ass" and "melt some faces." The young performers all prove up to their acting chores as well. They create forceful personalities, ranging from Joey Gaydos Jr.'s Zack, who really loosens up to get into the physicality of being a lead guitar player, to Maryam Hassan's Tomika, whose rich voice helps her overcome shyness and insecurity, and Miranda Cosgrove's Summer, the band's manager, who switches from books on geometry to those dealing with the economics of music and the career of David Geffen.
The film hits another comic mother lode in the byplay between Black and Cusack when he persuades her to agree to a class "field trip" by playing her favorite rock music in a grunge tavern.
Where this is all headed is imminently predictable, but getting there is no less fun. The climatic debut of the school band, which the youngsters name the School of Rock, is the film's highlight. Black's own rock talents contribute to the socko finish.
Good rock music runs throughout the movie. Some songs were written by Black and White. (Hey, that's a catchy name for a songwriting duo.) The New York band Mooney Suzuki wrote the fictional band's signature song, "School of Rock".
Shot in New York and New Jersey, "The School of Rock" benefits from Rogier Stoffers' fluid cinematography, Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer's theatrical lighting design for the final number and Karen Patch's amusing costumes that transform school uniforms into outlaw garb.
THE SCHOOL OF ROCK
Paramount Pictures
A Scott Rudin production
Credits:
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriter: Mike White
Producer: Scott Rudin
Executive producers: Steve Nicolaides, Scott Aversano
Director of photography: Rogier Stoffers
Production designer: Jeremy Conway
Music: Craig Wedren
Costume designer: Karen Patch
Editor: Sandra Adair
Cast:
Dewey Finn: Jack Black
Rosalie Mullins: Joan Cusack
Ned Schneebly: Mike White
Patty: Sarah Silverman
Zack: Joey Gaydos Jr.
Tomika: Maryam Hassan
Freddy: Kevin Clark
Katie: Rebecca Brown
Lawrence: Robert Tsai
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Toronto International Film Festival
"The School of Rock" rocks. This audience-pleaser comes from writer Mike White and director Richard Linklater, names usually associated with independent filmmaking. For that matter, the moviemakers have fun with their own filmography as the movie does comic riffs on the world of slackers, disaffected outsiders and other anti-Establishment types. White and Linklater team up with actor-musician Jack Black to create a high-energy comedy that takes its hero seriously when he declares, "I serve society by rocking!" Paramount has a winner in this Scott Rudin production.
"The School of Rock" gets going slowly as the film's first 20 minutes let Black go over the top to establish his slacker credentials. A hapless and aging rocker with no record deal or even next month's rent to show for years devoted to rock 'n' roll, Black's Dewey Finn is in a bad way. On the same day, he gets fired from his own band and receives a none-too-subtle eviction notice from roommate Ned White), egged on by Ned's exasperated girlfriend, Patty (Sarah Silverman).
Desperate to earn some bread, Dewey pretends to be Ned, who works as a substitute schoolteacher. Dewey takes a job for several weeks at a snooty private elementary school run by anal principal Rosalie Mullins (Joan Cusack). Dewey is content to institute daylong recess until he hears his youngsters play in orchestra class. Impulsively, he decides to mold these musical prodigies into a rock band. He junks the curriculum in favor of rock history, rock music appreciation and a pledge of allegiance that gives him "creative control" of the band.
Watching Black's deadbeat rocker teach a class of uniformed, rigidly disciplined youngsters how to adopt nonconformist, antisocial attitudes proves a rich source of comedy. Watching Dewey teach the theory and practice of rock, we realize this guy really does have an instinct for teaching -- as long as the subject inspires his passion. Soon his kids start acting like kids, not miniature adults, and Dewey dons the mantle of adult responsibility for the first time.
The filmmakers threw out a wide casting net to snare talented young musicians and singers to play the preteens in Dewey's high-voltage rock band, kids who can musically "kick ass" and "melt some faces." The young performers all prove up to their acting chores as well. They create forceful personalities, ranging from Joey Gaydos Jr.'s Zack, who really loosens up to get into the physicality of being a lead guitar player, to Maryam Hassan's Tomika, whose rich voice helps her overcome shyness and insecurity, and Miranda Cosgrove's Summer, the band's manager, who switches from books on geometry to those dealing with the economics of music and the career of David Geffen.
The film hits another comic mother lode in the byplay between Black and Cusack when he persuades her to agree to a class "field trip" by playing her favorite rock music in a grunge tavern.
Where this is all headed is imminently predictable, but getting there is no less fun. The climatic debut of the school band, which the youngsters name the School of Rock, is the film's highlight. Black's own rock talents contribute to the socko finish.
Good rock music runs throughout the movie. Some songs were written by Black and White. (Hey, that's a catchy name for a songwriting duo.) The New York band Mooney Suzuki wrote the fictional band's signature song, "School of Rock".
Shot in New York and New Jersey, "The School of Rock" benefits from Rogier Stoffers' fluid cinematography, Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer's theatrical lighting design for the final number and Karen Patch's amusing costumes that transform school uniforms into outlaw garb.
THE SCHOOL OF ROCK
Paramount Pictures
A Scott Rudin production
Credits:
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriter: Mike White
Producer: Scott Rudin
Executive producers: Steve Nicolaides, Scott Aversano
Director of photography: Rogier Stoffers
Production designer: Jeremy Conway
Music: Craig Wedren
Costume designer: Karen Patch
Editor: Sandra Adair
Cast:
Dewey Finn: Jack Black
Rosalie Mullins: Joan Cusack
Ned Schneebly: Mike White
Patty: Sarah Silverman
Zack: Joey Gaydos Jr.
Tomika: Maryam Hassan
Freddy: Kevin Clark
Katie: Rebecca Brown
Lawrence: Robert Tsai
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 10/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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