School of Hard Rocks

metal youth: Paul Green, right, schools 12-year-old guitar god C.J.

Rock School's Paul Green is the music teacher as football coach.

Rock School

by Sam Adams

Read the early reviews, and the debate is already underway: Just how much of a jerk is Paul Green? The proprietor and chief taskmaster of the eponymous School of Rock — which, as Philadelphians know, existed years before that other one — tells his students in a mock whisper that one scorching outburst is "or-fay the ovie-may," but Green's volcanic temper is never far from the surface.

It might clear things up to think of Rock School not in terms of tender films about the flowering of young talents, but as a sports movie in which Green is the red-faced coach goading, cajoling and borderline-bullying his 12- to 17-year-olds to their climactic success — the big game in this case being a concert where Green's top students play thorny Frank Zappa compositions for an audience of dumbstruck Germans. Reject Film Fest co-founder Don Argott's documentary even has its own Bruckheimer-like ensemble cast: C.J., the 12-year-old guitar whiz; Madi, the cloistered Quaker folkie; Will, the sweet, lumbering misfit who weathers Green's apoplexies with sardonic grace.

Green casts himself as bad cop to the school's more even-keeled instructors; his responsibility to the kids is, as he sees it, "to really see what they can do when you strip away the fear and the laziness." The tough-love approach clearly brings out the best in some pupils, but Rock School shows that not every student responds to the psych-out. "A lot of kids get lost in the web," says Will, who at one point says that his school of rock classes are the only thing keeping him from another suicide attempt. Then he drops out.

Argott's documentary also uncovers an ugly strain of misogyny in Green's teaching. Although Madi comes in as a proficient singer and guitarist, Green sneers at her fondness for Sheryl Crow, and lays into her with unique viciousness in one ugly rehearsal room spat. (To be fair, Argott likes to cut in mid-tantrum, so we rarely get an idea what's set Green off.) Although Green says he's just trying to push Madi past Sheryl Crow to Joni Mitchell, the school's curriculum is chockablock with cock rock, from Zappanoid guitar wank to Iron Maidenly growl. Green taunts one boy for eyeing the fret board as he plays, "Do you want to be in a girl band? Do you want to be in the Bangles?"

And there, at last, is the rub. Green says he'll consider himself a success when a band of Green school grads hits the top of the charts, but you have to wonder if Green's fetishistic focus on flagrant technique isn't more likely to turn out session hacks than free spirits. Sure, the kids play "Rebel Yell" and not "Southern Cross," but it's only mimicry of a higher order. Green's students learn to deride the simplicity of the songs on the radio, but not how hard it can be to write something that sounds easy.

Rock School Directed by Don Argott A Newmarket Films release Opens Friday at Ritz Five recommended