There are times when even I'm loathe to admit I like a movie. As anyone who has perused my page may of noticed I'm not the most discriminating person in the world when it comes to movies. Still, there's that pesky little inner voice -perhaps a result of some sort of self-generated guilt about looking foolish in public- that makes me embarrassed to admit I like certain movies. Among this list of films I include Rock 'n' Roll High School.
Having Roger Corman as the movie's producer certainly doesn't endear it to me. In Hollywood there are good movies, bad movies, and Roger Corman movies. A master at self-promotion and the ability to churn out a never ending stream of movies of questionable merit, Corman is the once and future king of B movies. Roger Corman is not a name that guarantees quality, so seeing "Roger Corman presents" stamped onto Rock 'n' Roll High School is enough to give even the most seasoned viewer pause.
In spite of the Cormanizing touch, Rock 'n' Roll High School turns out to be more entertaining than one would expect. The plot is nothing special, being mostly a send-up of 1950's style rock 'n' roll movies where the entire story exists as a showcase for the musical talent being advertised. That's right, Rock 'n' Roll High School is a B grade parody of a B movie staple; quite the bit of inbreeding. The difference this time is that instead of featuring the Monkees or some nobody that was being promoted as the next big thing, the musical talent this time out is THE RAMONES.
Set in some weird alternate reality where the Ramones were insanely popular, the plot concerns the clash of personalities between Riff Randell [P.J. Soles] -the number one fan of the Ramones who is as peppy as her wardrobe- and the school's new principle, the perpetually odd Miss Togar [Mary Woronov.] General nonsense ensues for the first half of the movie mostly involving high school students who look to be around thirty years old, jokes that don't work, sonically troubled mice, and the general level of competence you find in a straight to video flick or possibly something lurking on USA Up All Night. Everything comes to a head when the Ramones come to town for a concert. While everyone attends the show dressed up in their best New Wave finery, Riff tries to get backstage in order to meet the Ramones and give the band a song -"Rock 'n' Roll High School"- she has written for them.
[Side note: In the movie repeatedly states that she wrote her song for the Ramones as part of a class assignment. I confess I've never taken a song writing course, but do most music teachers accept three cord punk songs as homework?]
Putting the Ramones in Rock 'n' Roll High School was either a canny bit of casting or a major, major mistake. I love the Ramones to death but I'm the first to admit that they had their shortcomings, the first being that they have no screen presence whatsoever. A number of rock stars seem to be nothing more than frustrated actors. This explains a lot of on-stage preening, music video excess, and any movie starring Madonna. With the Ramones, however, what you saw was what you got. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when none of them have any acting skills it doesn't make for the most thrilling of cinema. Most of the problem is skimmed over by not giving the Ramones much to do other than play songs or stumble over a few lines of dialogue but things become messy when the late, great Joey Ramone is billed as some sort of teen idol. Tall, gaunt, pale, and bird-like, Joey is not the traditional image of a sex symbol. It's worth the price of admission just to see Riff swoon when Joey mumbles out lines like "Hey, it's Riff Randell, our number one fan." Actually, he says something along the lines of "Eh, eehhffaannl ernuherahneane" but you get his general drift. I don't know whether the Ramones were a case of stunt casting in order to go against the grain of what is expected of musicians in this sort of role or if the poor guys were actually trying their best, but either way the results are hysterical.
Besides the opportunity to watch one of my favorite bands act very silly, what is it that I see in Rock 'n' Roll High School? On the whole I dislike teen comedies. Always have and always will. Thing is, most of the time I've had a hard time explaining just why. At first I thought it was because I felt they were overly silly, but that explanation didn't fit. I enjoyed other stupid movies, so why should I single out this one genre? Perhaps it's because of my indifference to John Cusack; enjoying his films seems to be some sort of prerequisite for enjoying teen movies. After putting some skull time into it I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the movies so much as the underlying themes found in most of them that bothered me. The movies claim to be about the wild excesses of youth. "The slopes heat up on this co-ed skiing trip!" or other equally hyperbolic blurbs make it sound like the movies are going to be nothing but juvenile excess. Funny thing is, they really aren't. The underlying theme of a majority of these types of movies is very traditional and socially conservative. After a bunch of childish antics the nerds gain some sort of social standing, the nondescript guy gets the girl, an ugly duckling will take off their glasses and turn out to be a swan, or something else happens that shows, even if in a small way, the characters have matured. The movies don't so much showcase the sense of freedom that comes with being young as show not only how fleeting but how much of an illusion that freedom is. Time and again the message is reinforced that all the nuttiness found in the movies is something that the kids have to get out of their system before they can become respectable members of society.
Take the movie American Pie as a recent example. In spite of all the horny antics the core of the movie -the apple core, if you will- was... um, okay, I wasn't paying that much attention to the movie when I saw it so my memory is pretty spotty, but I'm certain it corresponds with my line of reasoning somehow or other. Trust me on that one, okay? It's not just teen comedies that echo this sort of thought; slasher movies, which are primarily aimed at teenagers, have a sense of morality inside their standard issue splatter plots. The plot fixtures such as that the good girl survives or that the copulating couple will get their comeuppance are also very cautionary as well. Time and again teen movies show that while a certain amount of frivolity is expected, if you step too far out of line you'll either get chased by either an axe wielding psycho or accidently get photographed bare-assed on the internet.
In a way this inadvertent theme is understandable. No one can stay young forever, plus the glazed-over, rebellious teenager of today is the clue-less, frightened parent of tomorrow. The dichotomy of being a teenager is the desire to be respected as an adult crossed with the desire to take any new found freedom you have and totally botch it. Inevitably the need to be treated as an adult more or less wins out. Teen comedy movies reflect this choice.
Also, while most teen comedies play out like they were written by a pack of chimps chained to typewriters, they are often written by adults who are either trying their best to remember what it was like to be younger or are writing about the type of teenagers who have only existed in movies. Even worse, they remember their younger years in a skewed manner in which it was nothing more than a series of lessons about life that were learned in a clockwork like manner. The worst example of this is that dreadful old show The Wonder Years. While I hardly expect stories to always reflect reality, it gets very hard to stomach a steady stream of one to grow one homilies shoved at you.
Once you understand all this you realize what makes Rock 'n' Roll High School unique. At the end of the film the entire student body rebels against Miss Togar's anti-rock 'n' roll stance and end up taking over the school. Forced into a situation where there's no possibility of compromise, Riff and her pals rig up some chemicals in the science lab that blow the school sky high. As their parents look on in shock, the Ramones blast out the title song, the students dance around the burning rubble, and the movie ends. What kind of moral is that?
The proper kind, actually. Now I'm not advocating blasting high schools off the map and neither is the film. Instead, it's nice to see a film that follows through on what it claims to be. Riff doesn't learn a valuable lesson at the end of the film, it turns out she was in the right all along. Rock 'n' Roll High School doesn't turn into some sort of horrid Classic Rock Class Reunion, instead it stays loyal to it's own spirit; it claims to be a teen comedy, and what kid hasn't thought it would be funny to watch their school roast? I don't know if it was an intentional decision to not follow the traditional route of teen movies, but by choosing to embrace the rebellious side of being a teenager Rock 'n' Roll High School succeeds by going against the grain. Besides, it looks really cool when the school gets blown to smithereens.
Yes, I know there was a sequel entitled Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever, but that flick featured Corey Feldman and Mojo Nixon. As far as I'm concerned that movie and the cow it rode in on can go sit and spin. Questions and comments about the above can either be sent via paper airplane or to gleep9@hotmail.com. Hey ho, let's go to either the Second Movie or Main page.