Rock School Reviews
January 7, 2006
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 23, 2005
It's like Spinal Tap, only shorter.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
July 8, 2005
So overpowering is Green's outsized, needy, arrested-adolescent personality (while you initially suspect he's playing for the camera, the blas attitude of his students suggests he really is like this), it throws the movie off-balance.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
July 8, 2005
Their playing is terrific, but there's little doubt the kids are fulfilling Green's fantasy rather than the other way around.
Original Score: 2.5/4
June 12, 2005
Paul Green seems more interested in what rock school can do for him than for the kids.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
June 10, 2005
Green's heart, if not his head, seems in the right place. He's carrying the torch and holding it high, and his students seem to dig it.
Original Score: 3/4
June 10, 2005
I don't know what it means that rock 'n' roll has become a bona fide after-school activity, but Rock School definitely kept my attention.
Original Score: B
June 10, 2005
Succeeds as a riveting movie because it doesn't try to lead us from verse to an obvious chorus about Green, or his uniquely abusive methods.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
June 9, 2005
Rock fans will likely find the cast of characters and its 'berlord' founder compelling.
June 9, 2005
The relationship between the talent-challenged Will and the punishing Green makes for one of the film's meatier dramatic threads.
Original Score: 3.5/4
June 6, 2005
Director Don Argott does a superb job of capturing this unique institution and this great teacher.
June 3, 2005
Green is a grim martinet, given to chair-throwing tantrums and fits of temper that look suspiciously choreographed for the camera.
June 3, 2005
Engrossing from its first shot to its final fade.
Original Score: 3.5/4
June 3, 2005
Hilarious, inspired, frenzied.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
June 3, 2005
Raw and funny documentary.
Original Score: 3/4
June 3, 2005
The narrative moves quickly and the characters are so much fun, that there's little time for inventory of what's missing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
June 3, 2005
As a portrait of dysfunctional pedagogy, it's both refreshing and more than a little terrifying.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
June 3, 2005
Exuberant and surprisingly unsettling documentary.
Original Score: 3/4
June 3, 2005
A rousing, garage-band-style documentary.
Original Score: 3/4
June 3, 2005
With its encomiums to Green and its feel-good finale in Germany, Rock School sometimes threatens to succumb to Mad Hot Ballroom syndrome... But Argott weaves a darker thread into the movie ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4