38/43
In a small Texas town, a kind mortician befriends a wealthy widow, but when she starts to become controlling, he does everything he can to distance himself from her. Real-life residents of Carthage, Texas, who knew the real Bernie. Tiede and Marjorie Nugent appear in the film and comment on the events. Bernie committed the murder in 1996, but answers an iPhone almost immediately after the murder. Townsperson: [Speaking of Marjorie Nugent] She’d kick your ass out at the drop of a hat. I mean, she’d cut you a brand-new, three-bedroom, two-bath, double-wide ass. No problem. Before the main cast appears, photos of the real-life Bernie and Marjorie together are shown, as well as a short video of Bernie Teide talking to Jack Black. According to the Technical specs link for the film, there are two different versions of this film: one is 1 hour 39 minutes (99 minutes), the other is 1 hour 44 minutes (104 minutes) (USA). Appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Jack Black/New York City’s Meatball Shop Guys/Beirut (2012). Love Lifted Me Written by James Rowe and Howard E. Smith Performed by The Florida Boys Courtesy of World Entertainment Licensed by Warner Music Group Film & TV. Bernie (2011) Don’t you hate it when you see a funny movie and at the end you think, wow, that could have been a lot funnier? This movie really is funny, and Jack Black is brilliant as the man who has incredible generosity and uncanny social skills to be everyone’s favorite. And who ends up taking care of the richest woman in town, putting his name on her will, and so on, as you might guess. To catch the gags and create a sense of documentary-like reality, clips of interviews with colorful townspeople are shown, and those are the funniest moments. When the same people are introduced over and over again, there’s a kind of welcome familiarity—a familiar face refreshing things—but also a similarity to the film. It falls into a pattern. And this is the bulk of the film, with thirty of these talking heads, so of course the momentum of the main plot often slows down. As the events get more extreme, the film doesn’t. It runs along, relying on some great individual acting and the strange (and exaggerated?) East Texas culture. But Black inhabits her character so well that it’s terrifying. The other big name (the biggest name) is Shirley MacLaine, who doesn’t really have much to do (she’s mostly silent, just ominous or moody). And of course, she doesn’t go through the whole film (the trailer and teaser give too much away on that score). The third name is Matthew McConaughey, and he’s predictably entertaining and funny, though he’s mixed in with a lot of other unknown characters who are also entertaining and funny. So it’s the script and some funny writing that carry the day. Well done stuff. Director and writer Richard Linklater is a curious talent, a little all over the map, but in a good few ways, including being unusual enough to seem like the indie director he once was. His pair of films “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset” have grown into unlikely classics (I really like both), and yet he’s also known for lesser comedies like “Dazed and Confused”; and now this. Yeah, watch this for a good laugh. It’s going to start off a little like a lame “Six Feet Under” episode, but hang in there. Black’s character is completely convincing and funny. Good times.