Brilliantly made black comedy

“Brilliantly made black comedy”

Written on: 24/11/2011 by reviewkitten (280 reviews written)

I'm a big fan of Richard Linklater films (Dazed and Confused, Slacker) so when my friend invited me to the London Film Festival I was pleased to see that one of the films we were going to watch was Bernie. Based on the true events surrounding a small town in Texas, a local mortician strikes up an unlikely friendship with a wealthy but universally disliked widow. Their close friendship changes both of them and unfortunately leads to a fatal end.

I really enjoyed the film, it is filled with what feels like real life residents of the town involved (we honestly thought they were real residents) and Jack Black is great as Bernie, using his singing to good effect. Shirley MacLaine is also on top form as the spiteful widow. There are some really twisted moments in the film and combined with the clever observations of how people really react to drama in their town creates a fantastic film. Richard Linklater has truely shown how gifted he is at making a film that blurs the line between a documentary and a movie.