The School of Rock: Richard Linklater is well aware of the great power that a mix of music and children possess, and this film has good music and charming kids. The story, however, revolves around an annoying, self-centered, insincere and manipulative protagonist and that nearly ruins everything, as it’s really hard to root for his success. It does not help matters that Jack Black plays him with excessive cartoonish, zany energy; the rest of the adult cast (in particular Sarah Silverman and Mike White) works in a more subdued, bearable key. The kids are charming but not particularly memorable, and the same can be said about the film’s look (the first shot of the film teases something special, but, alas, that’s all that is visually distinctive).