An uproarious exercise in cultural juxtaposition, “School of Rock” elevates Tenacious D’s Jack Black from the pits of the cult actor to full-blown movie stardom. The performer, with Chris Farley’s sense of presence and a certain unrefined cynicism, deftly guides the family film away from the genre’s usual mawkishness and into a sort of Bad-Company-meets-Peter-Pan Rock ‘n’ Roll Never Never Land.

Dewey Finn (Black, “High Fidelity”) is a hapless thirtysomething who refuses to face reality and give up his rock ‘n’ roll fantasy. When his roommate’s girlfriend (a delightfully shrewish Sarah Silverman (“Screwed”) suggests that he sell his guitar to make rent, Dewey retorts, “Would you tell Picasso to sell his guitar?”

Meanwhile, in one of cinema’s more clichéd moments — most recently exhausted in Mark Wahlberg’s “Rock Star” — the music-worshipping protagonist is thrown out of his band, which is looking to start taking things “seriously.”

Enter New York’s Horace Green Preparatory School (read: the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, NY), a uniform-latent academy in search of a substitute teacher. One tiny act of fraud later, Finn has a teaching gig, elegantly noting, “Those that can’t do, teach.”

Frowning upon an education system that rewards gold stars for knowledge of Pythagoras, Finn turns the class into a rock band that rewards guitar solos for knowledge of Black Sabbath.

Fourteen years after “The Dead Poet’s Society” preached private school rebellion through English, “School of Rock” is advocating a similar questioning of authority through the more traditional channel of rock. In this sense, the Jack Black vehicle is less creative insofar as the interpretation of Led Zeppelin lyrics as an ode against “the Man” is hardly groundbreaking. But the suggestion that preppy 10-year-olds should take issue with “the Man” is pleasantly comedic.

Yet, there remains a certain smug cynicism to “School of Rock” that serves to keep values in necessary check. The film makes light of Dewey’s hangover-led lifestyle and his inability to perform basic mathematical operations. But the movie walks a fine line, applauding Dewey’s rebellious ideologies while using hyperbole as a means of humorously frowning upon the aforementioned lifestyle that embodies those ideologies at the expense of societal function.

In that particular tightrope role, Black is at his finest. The young actor’s love for music shines through with a certain glimmer in his eyes, while his physical presence brings life to nearly every scene.

But it is Black’s voice that sticks out the most. “School of Rock” comes complete with a couple of freshly penned songs featuring the protagonist on lead vocals. Although both tunes are lyrically weak (one with some disturbingly confused morals), they both have more merit than most musical pieces designed for character performance in a movie (not to be mistaken for songs scribed for soundtracks, which are frequently among the recording industry’s finer tracks).

And it comes as little surprise that the film features an excellent selection of classic rock songs as background tracks (some of which are on the soundtrack, some of which are not). AC/DC, Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple all have songs in the film, just to name a few.

It is those tracks and Dewey Finn’s worship of The Ramones that help keep the family-friendly picture truly amicable to multiple age groups. There are certainly enough child actors and classroom scenes to keep any primary school student happy, but there are also Kurt Cobain and Enya jokes to help keep the movie relevant for older crowds.

Finally, praise for director Richard Linklater is in order. The helmer, who made a splash by challenging conventional notions of cinema with “Slacker” in 1991, proves that he not only can make a traditional film, but that he understands Hollywood comedy as well. In that sense, “School of Rock” serves to elevate both Linklater and Black into the cinematic mainstream, where they both show extraordinary promise.

Grade: A/B