Review of Bernie (2012) by Mohammed A — 08 Dec 2016

Bernie is directed and co-written by Richard Linklater, and it stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey in a black comedy film about the real life story of Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) who is very friendly towards his townsfolk, and he got himself very closely to Marjorie (Shirley MacLaine) who's a rude widow that wants everything done by someone else, and Bernie just couldn't take it anymore.

Can't believe that it's been 4 years since this film was out and that I last watched it, and knowing that I reviewed the director's work like Boyhood and School of Rock, also starred Jack Black in, I'm curious to see how this hold up, and it did it pretty solidly.

Jack Black gives a three-dimensional performance with him being nice as he can, and when he sort of loses it, which it's different from what I usually see in him which makes it one of the best performances that I've seen from him.

Shirley MacLaine is just delightfully mean in this, and Matthew McConaughey is having a lot of fun acting a bit quirky in it that works. I like how they use the town gossips element as it gives the film more of a documentary feel to it, and there are some funny moments in it, while taking itself seriously.

The writing by Richard Linkater and Skip Hollandsworth, who actually wrote the article that this movie adapts back in 1998, is really good at adapting it very well, and is quite interesting to watch. It's smart, and it's enjoyable to watch for fans of Richard Linklater and Jack Black.