Paul Green, the kids, the music, the direction, everything !
Disadvantages:
Not much, maybe the music if you really hate Zappa
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Paul Green is a loud foul mouthed, temper tantrum of a man. He runs his own Rock School in Philadelphia where he imparts his musical wisdom to a number of 9-16 year olds, and whatever you think of his methods they certainly seem to work. Rock School the documentary (surely School of Rock must have been based on Green and his school?) follows Green around as he prepares his kids for a couple of shows. A Black Sabbath tribute one for his new and less accomplished students and a performance at a Zappa convention in Germany for his elite students.
Rock School is the perfect documentary; it has a very personable leading man who doesn't hold anything back, even while in front in the camera, a group of kids that include the annoying, the brilliant and the geeky and it shows what kids can achieve if they have the desire and are pushed hard and not told they cannot achieve their targets. His philosophy to teaching is set impossible targets but just don't tell the kids that they shouldn't be able to do what he asks of them. If they think he expects them to be able to do it then they will try harder. He gives his students one of Zappa's hardest tunes to practice and waits to see how well they can perform it, knowing that they shouldn't be able to but looking forward to hearing how well they do manage it. What is most surprising is that this does work, by not setting limits to what he thinks they can learn nor do they! By showing his disappointment at the failure to learn the impossible he inspires the kids to try harder.
Green is a big child at heart, he has never really grown up and is trying to live his dream of being a musician vicariously through other people's children, but you know what I love him! He is a star and just exudes charisma, his passion for music is apparent to everyone watching and his enthusiasm for teaching what he knows knows no bounds. Having said that he does have to share screen time with some amazing kids.
We have CJ the 12 year old wunderkind on guitar who is as good as most rock guitarists will ever be, how a kid that age can be so good I just do not know but when you see him, almost hidden by his guitar, you just sit there open mouthed at his ability to play.
Then there is Madi, a bright, good looking young girl who wants to be a Sheryl Crow like performer and is always arguing with Green (in fact she is the one student who not only stands their ground with him but gives him as good as she gets expletive wise!), and being made fun of due to her being a Quaker and associated with The Friendly Gangstas, a group of Quaker Rappers led by Funk Master Friendly, who rap Quaker hymns. Yes that does have to be seen to be believed, as does the dancing that the rapping hymns brings out of their fellow Quakers!
Asa and Tucker the 9 year old twins are as hyperactive as the kids on channel 4's Supernanny, and you can imagine them being as impossible to control as those kids as well, but Green's school has seemingly given them an outlet for their extra energy. They scream their vocals, can you imagine hearing Black Sabbath in a high-pitched voice that hasn't broken yet, but they love what they are doing and it must help the family as a whole. Not only that but their on camera comments when being interviewed are typical of kids their age and cannot help but make you laugh at them.
Green doesn't just take kids on based on their musical ability though, there is Will, a depressive suicidal boy who seems to have found a reason to live due to Greens school. He is musically incompetent and never practises at all, something Green is always haranguing him about. You would think that this would be a bad idea but maybe Green's constant berating of him makes Will realise that someone does care about him, that Green does at least communicate with him and not at him! Will may never be good enough to become part of the secondary covers band, let alone the Zappa group, but being part of something means a lot to him.
There is so much enthusiasm pouring out of Green that you cannot help but smile during Rock School, as I said he doesn't believe that his 'kids' should be told they cannot do something, he gives them the hardest songs he knows to learn and tells them they can do it, and it works. He is full of boundless energy himself, his love of rock music pouring out of him and infecting his students, remember these kids have probably never heard of Black Sabbath and Frank Zappa before they meet him. Neither band is hip or trendy, in the charts or listened to by their age group, but he instils a love of good music and not pre-packaged pop or modern day limited chord use rock bands.
The highlight of the film is seeing the kids go to Germany for the festival, how do they get on? Well go see it and find out. Let's just say that Green's final quote is "That is the greatest moment of my life… … … well and the birth of my child!"
Rock School deserves to be THE breakthrough documentary of this year. It deserves to follow Columbine and SuperSize Me and to be talked of in the same way as the two of them.
Not surprisingly the soundtrack to this movie is chock full of classic rock, mainly from the two aforementioned bands, but of course it is all played, in the main, by the Paul Green School of Rock (PGSOR), not that you are likely to realise this if you just heard the music! If you love this kind of music it will make this film even more enjoyable, if you don't (like me) then it will not make a whit of difference to your enjoyment of this film, after all it is the teacher and the students that make this film.
This was released last week 9th of Sept 2005 and sadly I have yet to see it on show anywhere. I viewed it at the 25th Cambridge Film Festival and I know the Arts Cinema in Cambridge is getting it back soon but it deserves a much bigger audience than it is ever likely to get. Cinema chains stick to boring, run of the mill releases and just don't show anything a bit different these days!
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