An imposter substitute teacher, and local laughingstock rocker, instructs a class of grade-schoolers in What He Knows: rock-and-roll, history and practice. The participation of director Richard Linklater (Slacker, etc.) and screenwriter Mike White (The Good Girl, etc. ) might raise expectations slightly, and similarly raise the results: head of the class of boneheads. Their plunge into the commercial mainstream -- for a sort of Adam Sandler movie sans Adam Sandler -- has left them relatively unbefouled, maybe with just a faint scent of oil and sewage. A smarty-pants answer to things like Mr. Holland's Opus and Music of the Heart, the movie nevertheless boasts the "sweetness" for which Sandler is abundantly famous and grudgingly indulged. The hero does end up teaching something, and of course learning something himself: a feel-good movie, but a feel-cool, too. Jack Black, in his plummiest role to date, throws himself into it body if not soul. He appears more eager to connect with those in the multiplex than with those in the classroom, thus coming across as grovelling and aloof at the same time, albeit in different directions. With Joan Cusack. (2003) — Duncan Shepherd