This movie was…not very good. Rumors of many rewrites and poor testing with audiences appear to be true; some serious issues with pacing and editing and some over-the-top bland and bad dialogue. 

Anthony Mackie gives it the old college try but there isn’t much to elevate in the script he’s given and making Sam Wilson increasingly humorless doesn’t exactly fit the skill set of Mackie. Danny Ramirez is likeable, to be generous, but is giving DCOM best friend energy. 

Maybe…

I would give this an excellent 4 stars but my husband fell at 3.5 so we compromised. We felt that this is a loving, detailed adaptation that offered more than a 1:1 copy. I missed the uniqueness and texture of Chenoweth and Menzel’s vocals but found both Ariana and Cynthia’s vocals very powerful and exciting. My husband didn’t buy some aspects of Ariana’s performance, but I thought it was very charming and fun. I do agree that there were moments…

As someone that lives in the music educator world myself, this has always been one of my favorite music-centric movies. Richard Linklater's realism combined with Mike White's writing and Jack Black's knowledge of Rock & Roll creates an atmosphere that truly pays homage to the instrumental-music world of a young developing musician. What makes this movie stand out amongst other music-centric movies, is that not only are the musicians in the movie capable of playing their respective instruments (and always demonstrating…