The film seems to argue fraud and deception are perfectly okay as long as you teach kids rock and roll in the process.
If you struggle to find work, parlay your skills into something useful. At the end of the movie Dewey manages to be legitimately hired as the school's music teacher/band manager. If he learned to harness his genuine skills and be a musician in a more practical manner, he wouldn't be struggling to pay rent.
Being a concerned parent does not give you a right to walk over the teaching staff. Mrs. Mullins' issues stem from parents who are overtly involved with their kids and if they were a little more patient, she would be more put together.
While Dewey's stunt goes well past dubious, his point that art and creativity are just as important as technical knowledge does have validity and the kids become happier once they learned to express themselves.
The other teachers could easily have exposed Dewey's ruse. So it's possible that Ms Mullins is merely finally cracking from the pressure of her job and is just in complete denial about the whole thing.
Is Dewey just a slacker who's too proud to get a day job while pursuing his rock star dreams, does he mooch off of Ned because the financial support gives him more time to focus on his band, or does he genuinely not have any valuable skills outside of being a rock musician to even have a day job? Probably a little of all three: Dewey he clearly demonstrates some legitimate musical theory knowledge, but doesn't think to make it work for him until the very end, when he creates a "School of Rock" after-school project.
Is Patty a controlling bitch who deserved to have the door slammed on her by Ned? Or does she act that way because she's concerned about Ned's career and doesn't want it dragged down by Dewey's laziness?
Angst? What Angst?: The kids were essentially used as child labor, but they developed a passion for rock music and at the last minute volunteer to keep the band going.
A highlight of the soundtrack is Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." Jack Black had to film a video of himself and the extras from the concert finale literally begging the band, who are notoriously stingy about licensing, to let them use it, which not only worked but is awesome in and of itself.
While "Heal Me, I'm Heartsick" is meant to be No Vacancy selling out, with its slicker Post-Grunge sound as opposed to the edgy hard rock they open the film with, it's a perfectly good ballad in its own right.
Base-Breaking Character: Is Patty a genuinely loving, but harsh, girlfriend who wants Ned to break away from what she sees as a degenerate moocher? Or is she a bitchy and controlling human being who feels entitled to tell Ned who he can and can't hang out with?
Common Knowledge: A lot of people assume that Dewey was acting as teacher for months and "cheated the kids out of an education". The actual timeline of the film is three weeks (Freddie says "we got a three week vacation") or possibly a month at most, as Ned doesn't get a cheque from the school until the third act (and Dewey acts as if it's the first one he's paid).
Designated Hero: Dewey is an egotistical musician who alienates his bandmates so much they kick him, mooches off of one of his best friends, steals a teaching job that he is in no way qualified to do from his roommate while assuming his identity, uses impressionable kids to rebuild his reputation, lies to their principal so he can drag them to a concert, and denies them the education the kids' parents paid for. Sure he does care about them and helps some of them become confident, but still, this is a lot of bad behavior from a movie "hero".
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The movie makes it abundantly clear that Dewey doesn't just lie to children and adults, he flat-out broke the law by not only impersonating Ned but sneaking children out of school to audition for/perform in a Battle of The Bands competition without permission, and in reality, an awesome concert finale wouldn't make up for these crimes. The movie would have been over in five minutes had he just jumped to the more reasonable conclusion of creating the "School of Rock" after-school program without the rigmarole of identity theft and kidnapping, but obviously, that wouldn't be as fun of a movie.
Draco in Leather Pants: People tend to ignore Patty's abuse of Ned and think of her as a Designated Villain. Although Dewey is mooching off Ned at the beginning, Ned only gives him an ultimatum because Patty wants it. Ned doesn't appear to have a problem with Dewey there and he only orders him to move out after he's crossed the Moral Event Horizon by impersonating him. Really, Ned is the Only Sane Man.
Freddie is one of the most popular kids, mainly due to being Troubled, but Cute and getting a lot of the best lines.
Katie the bass player in a weird way. She's noticed precisely because she's The Generic Guy who doesn't get many lines, and doesn't get a solo in the end credits.
Genius Bonus: Dewey at one point says "would you tell Picasso to sell his guitars?" and Patty acts as if he's an idiot. Guitars actually do feature prominently in many Picasso paintings.
Growing the Beard: A peculiar example concerning anti-establishment movies with an emphasis on music. Most films in that style had overly simplistic plots where the protagonist is insufferably flawless and the establishment is filled with killjoys whose beliefs were just made to be ridiculed. School of Rock hits a gray zone by having Dewey be unscrupulous to the point of criminal behaviour, while everyone who disagrees with him all have good reason to, yet his influence on the kids is nonetheless a positive one in the end.
When the kids fake being terminally ill to get a spot at the Battle of the Bands, Freddy straight-up plays dead. His actor Kevin Clark tragically died in 2021 at the age of 32 after being struck by a car.
Dewey goes off on his "I'm talking about bands that rock!" rant after one of the students mentions that they like Liza Minnelli. Three years later, Minnelli would feature on a rock albumnote She sings as Mother War in "Mama".
Lucas Babin plays Spider, a hypersexual weirdo character in a movie (sort of) meant for kids. Later, as District Attorney of Tyler County, Texas (yes, really), he'd sue Netflix for distributing Cuties in America on grounds of indecency (of course, your own opinion on the matter may determine whether or not you find it hilarious).
Informed Wrongness: Patty is supposed to be the villain who jeopardizes Dewey's plans and pushes Ned around while hypocritically telling him to be more assertive. However, Dewey is a talentless mooch with no career prospects who thought it was a good idea to threaten Ned's career by taking his identity and stealing one of his jobs. One would think this only vindicates Patty's judgment of Dewey.
LGBT Fanbase: There are many queer fans of the movie, a good amount of whom realised their sexuality as a child when crushing on one of the other kids. As noted below, a positively portrayed Camp Gay character, despite being hated by the bi Mike White, is pretty popular in his own right.
There's plenty of photos with Caitlin Hale's (Marta) face next to that of Erik Per Sullivan (who played Dewey on Malcolm in the Middle) simply because of the uncanny resemblance the two have.
There are a handful of videos on YouTube of drummers saying "'Hawaii Five-O'',' you ever seen that show? Where there's a part in it that goes..." followed by them playing the drum fill on an absurdly long set of toms.
Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Contrary to writer/star Mike White's negative opinion of the character having his Camp Gay stereotypes played up and efforts to humanize him more in the Broadway show, Billy "Fancy Pants" is very beloved by LGBTQ+ fans of the movie, who not only think he's hilarious but argue that he isn't even that much of an exaggeration of an effeminate preadolescent boy to be considered offensive.note These differing opinions may be due to society having changed a lot between Mike White's youth and 2003, as well as White's experiences being queer (he's openly bisexual) being much less forgiving for him, having grown up in the 70s and 80s with an closeted gay father who ghostwrote speeches for anti-gay Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. While homophobia wasn't eradicated by 2003, opinions on homosexuality were generally kinder and kids in a visibly diverse private elementary school would've found homosexuality a non-issue, if not cool (the "metrosexuality" trend was only a year away). It helps that his actor Brian Faltudo, not only came out as gay after the fact but went on to become a passionate activity for LGBTQ+ causes, including The Trevor Project.
Miranda Cosgrove (Summer), one year before her breakthrough role on Drake & Josh and three years before she'd star as the lead on iCarly, makes her screen debut here.
Lucas Babin (Spider) later became the District Attorney of Tyler County, Texas.
Ned's girlfriend Patty, when you really think about it. Dewey has been bumming at their place for months if not years, while continually refusing to get a steady job and therefore doing little to contribute to the rent. Ned keeps doing whatever he can to accommodate him because they were in a band years ago, while Patty is just supposed to tolerate this. It doesn't change the fact that she seems to take joy in Dewey's suffering, but anyone would be frustrated by that point. Also, although she's annoying and a nag, she points out that Dewey committed fraud by stealing Ned's identity and then exploiting a classroom full of little kids by lying to and manipulating them.
The fact of the matter is that most aspiring rock stars, no matter how committed they are to their dreams of music stardom, will not succeed and will have to find some other means of paying the bills. It's not because their drive wasn't strong enough, simply that at some point, Surprisingly Realistic Outcome happens and you have to find a way to provide the basic necessities for yourself. Of course, the movie sets up something of a False Dichotomy — a lot of people simply parlay their rock star dreams into another career involving music, such as teaching or writing about it. And of course, at the end of the movie, Dewey and Ned do just that by setting up an after-school rock music teaching program. But the way Dewey acted as if it had to be either one or the other doesn't reflect reality.
It's hard to blame Dewey's band for kicking him out — just watch Dewey in action during the opening scene. Being a Large Ham is OK, but he should have known when to tone it down a little. The fact that No Vacancy win the Battle of the Bands without him makes their point just that much stronger.
Invoked with No Vacancy's Battle-winning song, "Heal Me, I'm Heartsick." The slicker Post-Grunge style is clearly meant to communicate that the band sold out and are now playing "corporate" modern rock as opposed to the edgier hard rock they opened the movie with, but a more reliable career-oriented act is exactly what the judges want, and Dewey's blind passion and stage antics was never going to get either him or the band there. They may be overly-professional, but they're supposed to be professionals.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Katie, the bass. Of course no one ever focuses on the bass, but they didn't even give her a solo in the end credits. According to Rivkah Reyes, the character didn't exist in earlier drafts, and they had been auditioning for Summer, Katie only being added into the film later.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: It's never confirmed whether or not Patty lives with them, but it's not unreasonable for her to be annoyed with how much Dewey takes advantage of Ned. On the other hand, Ned doesn't seem to mind and she walks all over him just as much. The stage musical assuages this somewhat: Patty takes huge issues with Dewey, but she doesn't take issue with Ned standing up for himself and is even turned on by Ned's rock star persona once she sees it. The fact that Dewey attains a music teacher job probably would help with the rent situation.
Dewey Finn's ploy could not work in a world with the internet/social media. A glance at his friend Ned's Facebook (or, LinkedIn, Facebook's more "professional-oriented" counterpart) or a YouTube video of Dewey with his first band would immediately tip the school off.
Dewey also asks to be paid in cash in order to keep up the subterfuge. In The New '10s, online banking (direct debit) has become ubiquitous, and anyone who specifically requests to be paid in cash clearly has something to hide, not to mention taxation requirements would not permit it anyway.
Values Dissonance: A cross-cultural example. Freddy's nickname of "Spazzy McGee" is considerably more offensive in the British Isles, as "spazzy" is considered an ableist slur there.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: While not outright vulgar, there's a fair share of light swearing (mostly from the kids, no less!) and more than a few references to sex and drugs. It carries a light PG-13 rating, but feels more like the kind of PG-rated kids' films from the early '80s that could get away with racier content before PG-13 existed.
Poor Ms. Mullins. When all the parents are yelling at her for the Dewey debacle, she leaves the room and goes to the stairs... to put herself in the corner. Aww!
Ned. The poor guy is just trying to make a living as a teacher when his roommate steals his identity as part of a get-rich-quick scheme. Meanwhile, he lets his girlfriend walk all over him because he's afraid he'll never get another chance with a woman.
Zack has an overbearing father and no confidence in himself, looking especially sad and in need of a hug after his father disciplines him before school one morning. Dewey is likely the first mentor he's ever had, and he takes The Reveal very bad, thinking he was just using them.
Stage Play
Award Snub: The show didn't win any of the Tonys it was nominated for, though considering it was competing against Hamilton this didn't surprise people.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: When playing at the Tonys, and facing some serious competition from Hamilton, Stage!Dewey reiterates that the band's not here to win but to rock, much as Film!Dewey did.
Hollywood Pudgy: Alex Brightman, the original Stage!Dewey, is not as overweight as Jack Black but is treated as such; he actually gained weight for the role but given the intense choreography he does it's easy to see how he wouldn't be able to maintain that physique.
Signature Song: “You’re in the Band” from Act 1 is this, especially after it was featured at the Tonys.
TV series
Ho Yay: Lawrence responds to being told the band stinks by saying Freddie smells amazing.
So Okay, It's Average: More generous viewers tend to have this reaction towards the show.
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