Jack Black: Five Films for Newcomers
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Happiest of birthdays to Thomas Jacob Black, known to the world as “Jack” Black. Now fifty-four years young, Black has been an entertainer of all sorts for decades. Exuding the utmost amount of charm and energy through film, television, video game entertainment, music, and social media, Black is easily one of the most likable celebrities out there. There’s a great chance you are already quite familiar with his work. If not, allow us to get you up to speed. Jack Black may play a few similar roles but all of them are fun, scene-stealing parts that will usually plant a smile on your face. To honour his birthday, let us take a dive into what may be his best performances in films that are worth your time. This will eliminate quite a few Jack Black films considering he may have a small role in a great film or a terrific role in a not-so-good film (quick shout out to his strong work as King Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie). I will also bring up Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny: a fictional film about Black’s band (with fellow actor and musician Kyle Gass) which is a particularly stupid but hilarious film that I will forever have nostalgia goggles on for (the music is genuinely quite good considering the tomfoolery of this affair). Nonetheless, enough meandering. Here are five films for newcomers to the works of Jack Black.
5. Tropic Thunder
While Jack Black is part of a trio (or more, if you include Tom Cruise’s blistering cameo) of leads in Tropic Thunder alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller (the latter who also directed and co-wrote the film), his antics perfectly match the satirical, self-aware tone of this scathing commentary on the Hollywood experience. As a lame, one-note comedian named Jeff Portnoy, Black somehow actually is funny as the stale jokesmith whilst showcasing the laziness of contemporary comedies that rely on toilet humour and awful punchlines to get a rise. He’s meant to be the least talented of the three characters, but Black makes Portnoy relevant — and entertaining — nonetheless.
4. High Fidelity
While Jack Black acted in quite a few films before Stephen Frears’ beloved dramedy High Fidelity, he was often associated with less-than-stellar affairs (see The Cable Guy, Bio-Dome, and The NeverEnding Story III: Escape From Fantasia); he was also not in better films quite long enough to make the proper introduction he deserved. By the time High Fidelity rolled around in the year 2000, we finally got acquainted with how quirky-yet-warm Black was as an actor all along (and in a film that tested musical knowledge to boot; Tenacious D’s own breakthrough via their self-titled debut album was just around the corner in 2001).
3. Bernie
It’s no secret that Jack Black and director Richard Linklater work well together (more on that soon), so I’m not surprised that we can find what is possibly the actor’s finest performance in the latter’s film Bernie. Taking on the heavy-duty task of portraying real-life mortician Bernie Tiede during a murder case, Black brings dark comedy and large doses of truthfulness and mysteriousness to a person full of conflict. Linklater’s film is a bit funnier than how most directors would handle this subject matter, allowing Black to shine in both his usual ways whilst showing how gifted of an actor he can truly be.
2. Kung Fu Panda
If there is any constant with the Kung Fu Panda series which wavers in quality from title to title, it’s that Jack Black makes a great Master Ping Xiao Po. Black is recognizable from his voice alone which is more of a blessing than a curse, and that couldn’t be truer in the case of how he handles this martial arts guru panda bear with electricity, wide-eyed wonder, and heaps of fun. You can technically state the entire series as one entry, but it makes sense to go back to the start with the first Kung Fu Panda film, particularly because of Po’s growth in the feature allowing Black to have a lot of texture and room for his voice performance to work with.
1. School of Rock
If you have never seen a Jack Black film before — or if you want to know what the most Jack Black film of all time is — there can only be one answer: Richard Linklater’s School of Rock. This music-based playground allows Black to go hog wild with his love of rock bands and albums as musician-turned-substitute-teacher (under false pretenses) Dewey Finn. Finn needs to quickly make a band for the upcoming battle of the bands since being thrown out of his own group, so he takes the spot of his roommate (an actual substitute teacher whose voicemail Finn intercepts) and races against time to teach a class of young, gifted children all the ins and outs of rock ‘n’ roll, turning them into a band of rockstar prodigies. The film is a blast of fun, and Black shines brighter than ever before and after as a slacker out to prove that he is more than a good-for-nothing: he was born to rock. So was Jack Black in life and in this beloved comedy: the absolute starting point for anyone that wants to get more familiar with the star.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.