At The Paul Green School of Rock Music, kids get in touch with their inner rock star by learning songs by Black Sabbath and Frank Zappa.

CRITIQUE

Rock School is truly one of the most pathetic documentaries that I’ve ever seen.  The film has no focus. It has nothing of any value to anyone, documentary fan or otherwise.  If this was meant to help sell the school to potential clients, the film does a terrible job.  Paul Green is a good teacher. He tells us that in the beginning, so it has to be true.  Of course, all we really see of his teaching methods is him shouting obscenities at his students and telling them that they “fucking suck.” Granted, some of the kids are shown to be playing some very complex material, but even at the start of this film, the kids that the film “follows” are already in the advanced program.  But, we never see these kids struggle with the material. We never see these kids ever playing poorly (aside from two 9-year-olds singing Black Sabbath.) In fact, we hardly ever seem them play at all. So why is this guy shouting at them? Thank god this film is only 90 minutes long because it becomes tiresome to watch Paul shout obscenities at the kids for reasons that we never understand.  This film is a waste of time, from beginning to end.

THE VIDEO

The video transfer is okay.  There is no noticeable grain.  The colors are rich and the black levels are consistent.

THE AUDIO

The film is presented in Dolby Surround 2.0 and has an okay mix. Nothing special to speak of. Which is a shame because the performance at the Zappanale festival does not shine as well as it could have.

THE EXTRAS

Audio Commentary with Director Don Argott, Producer Sheena Joyce, and Editor Demian Fenton: This track, abysmal at best, recounts how much fun it is to edit a film drunk and how they “could have” shown the kids practice and struggle, but didn’t want to because it would be “boring.”

Deleted Scenes: More stuff from the film, not really worth looking at.

FINAL THOUGHT

Don’t bother with Rock School. There are better documentaries out there.