Bernie Review

The first movie I would like to talk about is a criminally underrated dark comedy starring Jack Black and directed the man who brought us Dazed and Confused and School of Rock; Richard Linklater. Bernie tells the unbelievable true story of small Texas town that didn't want to convict a well liked funeral director of murder after he befriended and killed an elderly woman. Black plays the title character Bernie, a funeral director who becomes the most popular guy in town, in a performance that is so different from anything he has played before. Shirley MacLaine plays the old woman who he befriends and later ends up killing when she becomes obsessive and abusive. Bernie is later brought in to court by a prosecutor who believes he killed for the money, played by Mathew McConaughey of course.

It might sound like I'm giving away the story but I'm not because the movie is not really about how or why he did it, it's about the town's reaction to it. The movie is also part documentary because it has interviews with the actual residents of the town the real events took place in, even parts of the movie were filmed there. Most of the story is told through the interviews of the towns people talking about what they thought of Bernie and painting a picture of the whole town in general, which ads most of the comedy to the movie. By doing this, the movie portrays the characters and real life events through the eyes of the town.

The whole cast, including Jack Black, do a great job portaying the characters and Richard Linklater uniquely crafts this story together. Very funny and underrated, Bernie brings to life the unbelievable tue events and how they affected a small Texas town.