Jack Black: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances

5. Dewey Finn - School Of Rock (2003)

Long before Richard Linklater was scoring Oscar adoration for his seemingly never-ending Boyhood, he landed a major hit examining Jack Black's perpetually childish Dewey Finn, a rock God trapped in the body of a loser who ends up subbing illegally to make some money. It's the kind of thing you could probably have imagined John Belushi or Chris Farley doing, but Black actually holds the manic levels down so Finn is never actually grotesque, so much as just goofball. And that is crucial for a character who essentially gambles with some children's futures (and was almost certainly arrested for falsely misrepresenting himself as a teacher and kidnapping after the credits) in order to play one sweet rock show. Black is effortlessly charming as Dewey - helped by the balance of Joan Cusack's stifled headmistress and Sarah Silverman's heinous bitch - and the role fits his as carefully and as comfortably as a glove.