Bernie (2011)

This true story of a beloved, people-pleasing, nice guy who befriends a mean old widow and then commits a crime will have you laughing between the cringes and joining Jack and me in thinking that truth is stranger than fiction. With Jack Black (last blogged for The Big Year) and Shirley MacLaine (I forgot to do her list before publishing this) as Bernie and Marjorie, it also features Matthew McConaughey (profiled in The Lincoln Lawyer) whose career began with director/writer Richard Linklater's (profiled in Me and Orson Welles) sophomore work Dazed and Confused (1993), as the prosecuting attorney.

The small town details (it takes place in Carthage in east Texas) as provided by Houston-born, Carthage-raised, Austin-dwelling Linklater and co-writer Skip Hollandsworth, on whose Texas Monthly article they based the screenplay (he's had two other articles made into TV movies by others), are hilarious. Some of the people on screen aren't actors but people who actually knew Bernie and Marjorie. Two of the funniest are character actor Sonny Carl Davis (little parts in such classics as Melvin and Howard (1980), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Thelma & Louise (1991), and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)--okay, not a classic but I liked it a lot) as Lonnie, and a slim bottle blonde with a deep tan whose screen credit is someone McConaughey, probably Matthew's mother but not listed on imdb. Here's a short discussion.

Someone complained on imdb that everyone is giving away the ending ahead of time, so I changed my first line to "commits a crime." However, in order to read this list of songs, you'll have to scroll down past the spoiler about which he complains. I don't remember much about the score by Austin-based, Germany-born Graham Reynolds, but I enjoyed hearing Black himself singing 8 of the 23 songs listed in his nice voice.

With 27 producers, this isn't a winner of my Producers Plethora Prize. The reigning champion is Another Happy Day with 29. Also we have an instance of my Rule #11 at least once.

Critics and audiences agree with us here, giving it 90% and 87% respectively on rottentomatoes. According to movietickets.com, this will be here in my town for at least another week on at least one screen. You won't miss anything by seeing it later on DVD, but we recommend that you do see it. Stay or wait until the end for footage of Black visiting with the real Bernie.