Jack Black in Bernie Photo: Castle Rock Entertainment/Kobal/Shutterstock At the end of an experimental decade, director Richard Linklater returned to a story that had been rattling around his brain since the ‘90s. Written by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly, the 1998 article “Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas” follows a mortician,...
- 6/6/2024
- by Matt Schimkowitz
- avclub.com
Jack Black in Bernie
Photo: Castle Rock Entertainment/Kobal/Shutterstock
At the end of an experimental decade, director Richard Linklater returned to a story that had been rattling around his brain since the ‘90s. Written by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly, the 1998 article “Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas” follows a mortician,...
Photo: Castle Rock Entertainment/Kobal/Shutterstock
At the end of an experimental decade, director Richard Linklater returned to a story that had been rattling around his brain since the ‘90s. Written by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly, the 1998 article “Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas” follows a mortician,...
- 6/6/2024
- by Matt Schimkowitz
- avclub.com
Bernie; The Look of Love; Compliance; Oblivion
"They're making it out worse than it really is. He only shot her four times..." If the idea of a whimsical, affectionate black comedy based on a real-life small-town murder case strikes you as tasteless, then Bernie (2011, Universal, 12) will make for oddly uncomfortable viewing. Golden Globe nominee Jack Black is in uncharacteristically restrained form as Bernie Tiede, the prim and proper mortician with a disarming affection for corpses and a flair for musical theatre, who becomes full-time companion/houseboy to Shirley MacLaine's wealthy widow.
Seduced by Marjorie Nugent's first-class lifestyle but driven to distraction by her overbearing hen-pecking, the beamingly creepy Bernie commits a monstrous act for which the good citizens of Carthage, Texas, seem more than happy to forgive him – the real dark heart of this not so wonderful life.
Pitched somewhere between the oddball romance of Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude...
"They're making it out worse than it really is. He only shot her four times..." If the idea of a whimsical, affectionate black comedy based on a real-life small-town murder case strikes you as tasteless, then Bernie (2011, Universal, 12) will make for oddly uncomfortable viewing. Golden Globe nominee Jack Black is in uncharacteristically restrained form as Bernie Tiede, the prim and proper mortician with a disarming affection for corpses and a flair for musical theatre, who becomes full-time companion/houseboy to Shirley MacLaine's wealthy widow.
Seduced by Marjorie Nugent's first-class lifestyle but driven to distraction by her overbearing hen-pecking, the beamingly creepy Bernie commits a monstrous act for which the good citizens of Carthage, Texas, seem more than happy to forgive him – the real dark heart of this not so wonderful life.
Pitched somewhere between the oddball romance of Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude...
- 8/17/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
It's a rollicking caper, but Butch and Sundance's lives were cartoonish at times – spiked with undramatic boring bits
Reading on mobile? Click to view.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Director: George Roy Hill
Entertainment grade: A–
History grade: B
Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh – better known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – were robbers in the American old west around the turn of the 20th century.
Crime
The film opens with the admission "Most of what follows is true". Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) ride to Hole-in-the-Wall, Wyoming, a pass where outlaws hang out. Their gang is keen to move on to robbing trains, specifically the Union Pacific Flyer. Butch, Sundance and their henchmen stop the train, but meet resistance from a clerk, Woodcock. "I work for Mr Eh Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, and he entrusted me …" Butch interrupts: "Will you shut...
Reading on mobile? Click to view.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Director: George Roy Hill
Entertainment grade: A–
History grade: B
Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh – better known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – were robbers in the American old west around the turn of the 20th century.
Crime
The film opens with the admission "Most of what follows is true". Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) ride to Hole-in-the-Wall, Wyoming, a pass where outlaws hang out. Their gang is keen to move on to robbing trains, specifically the Union Pacific Flyer. Butch, Sundance and their henchmen stop the train, but meet resistance from a clerk, Woodcock. "I work for Mr Eh Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, and he entrusted me …" Butch interrupts: "Will you shut...
- 7/11/2013
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
If Matthew McConaughey's career appears to be enjoying a renaissance, one of the reasons is because, as he has revealed, he has been listening to his critics and reading what they have to say.
The actor, currently being celebrated for his very different turns in 'Mud' and 'Bernie', spent a few years in a rom-com wilderness, earning monikers like 'Matthew Mahogany' for his perma-tanned, ever-grinning romantic screen persona.
Matthew McConaughey is currently being feted for his performance in 'Mud'
But, as he revealed to AP recently, he sat down and read what people had to say about him...
"A few years ago, I did a really interesting kind of experiment," McConaughey said, according to Redding.com.
"My assistants gathered every negative review I've ever had and it was a good, thick pile. I sat down and said, 'We're gonna read every one of these.
The actor, currently being celebrated for his very different turns in 'Mud' and 'Bernie', spent a few years in a rom-com wilderness, earning monikers like 'Matthew Mahogany' for his perma-tanned, ever-grinning romantic screen persona.
Matthew McConaughey is currently being feted for his performance in 'Mud'
But, as he revealed to AP recently, he sat down and read what people had to say about him...
"A few years ago, I did a really interesting kind of experiment," McConaughey said, according to Redding.com.
"My assistants gathered every negative review I've ever had and it was a good, thick pile. I sat down and said, 'We're gonna read every one of these.
- 5/6/2013
- by The Huffington Post UK
- Huffington Post
As I said in my film review of 'Bernie', currently in UK cinemas, his story is one that sounds ridiculously far-fetched, something that tickles the writer of the screenplay, Skip Hollandsworth.
Jack Black "got to sing, dance, play a sociopathic killer" as Bernie Tiede
"I started writing the notes for this in 1997. I became obsessed," he tells me cheerfully - because he knew he was on to something the moment he read a two-paragraph article about Bernie Tiede in a Dallas newspaper. "That afternoon, I was on my way to Carthage. I just knew something was up."
What spurred the writer to get in his car and drive to where Bernie was in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Marjorie Nugent, one of the richest but least-loved characters of that little town?
"I was amazed. People wanted to keep him out of prison. And every time anybody...
Jack Black "got to sing, dance, play a sociopathic killer" as Bernie Tiede
"I started writing the notes for this in 1997. I became obsessed," he tells me cheerfully - because he knew he was on to something the moment he read a two-paragraph article about Bernie Tiede in a Dallas newspaper. "That afternoon, I was on my way to Carthage. I just knew something was up."
What spurred the writer to get in his car and drive to where Bernie was in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Marjorie Nugent, one of the richest but least-loved characters of that little town?
"I was amazed. People wanted to keep him out of prison. And every time anybody...
- 5/1/2013
- by Caroline Frost
- Huffington Post
Director: Richard Linklater; Screenwriters: Skip Hollandsworth, Richard Linklater; Starring: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey, Brady Coleman; Running time: 99 mins; Certificate: 12A
Truth is stranger than fiction, and it doesn't get much stranger than this. Jack Black is Bernie, a pillar of his small-town Texas community who is charged with the murder of a wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine). Heinous as it is, the crime itself is unremarkable. It's the reaction of the locals and Bernie's way of coping with the burden that boggles the mind. While these things are unexpectedly funny, director Richard Linklater seems uninterested in the whys and wherefores.
After directing Black off the leash in School of Rock (2003), Linklater draws a picture of someone who is much more restrained here and, arguably, repressed in many ways. Black is so mild-mannered he's almost bland. Still, they're angling for comedy in an unusual approach that also uses testimony...
Truth is stranger than fiction, and it doesn't get much stranger than this. Jack Black is Bernie, a pillar of his small-town Texas community who is charged with the murder of a wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine). Heinous as it is, the crime itself is unremarkable. It's the reaction of the locals and Bernie's way of coping with the burden that boggles the mind. While these things are unexpectedly funny, director Richard Linklater seems uninterested in the whys and wherefores.
After directing Black off the leash in School of Rock (2003), Linklater draws a picture of someone who is much more restrained here and, arguably, repressed in many ways. Black is so mild-mannered he's almost bland. Still, they're angling for comedy in an unusual approach that also uses testimony...
- 4/22/2013
- Digital Spy
The rain, and later cold, didn’t deter audiences as big numbers turned out for day two of Ebertfest. As evidenced by the pairing of “I Remember” with Days of Heaven, Roger put tremendous thought into his programming of the festival, something clearly on display with his choices for day two. The power and beauty of both family and art were thematic through-lines of the day, starting with the short, “To Music”.
Directed by Sophie Kohn and Feike Santbergen, “To Music” centers on Antwan, a lute player in the midst of depression who is eventually pulled out of it by hearing his pianist friend play Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” and picking up his lute again. There’s a clear sense of family in the film- Henriett, the female lead, can see that Antwan needs help. She tries to draw him out herself, she consults the local priest who tries as well,...
Directed by Sophie Kohn and Feike Santbergen, “To Music” centers on Antwan, a lute player in the midst of depression who is eventually pulled out of it by hearing his pianist friend play Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” and picking up his lute again. There’s a clear sense of family in the film- Henriett, the female lead, can see that Antwan needs help. She tries to draw him out herself, she consults the local priest who tries as well,...
- 4/19/2013
- by Kate Kulzick
- SoundOnSight
Stars: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey, Brady Coleman, Richard Robichaux, Rick Dial, Brandon Smith, Larry Jack Dotson | Written by Richard Linklater, Skip Hollandsworth | Directed by Richard Linklater
Fact is always stranger than fiction. That statement has been a part of our popular lexicon for as long as I can remember. Even with its common use the factual nature of that statement has gone relatively unexamined. While that is not the exact purpose of Richard Linklater’s Bernie it is a welcomed side effect. In Bernie Linklater tells the story of Bernie, an eccentric funeral director that completely takes over a small Texas town. Instead of presenting this story in a normal biographical framework Linklater uses a combination of actors and real life townspeople by weaving them in through documentary style interviews and actual scripted scenes. With this blend of fact and possibly fiction we get a fascinating portrait into...
Fact is always stranger than fiction. That statement has been a part of our popular lexicon for as long as I can remember. Even with its common use the factual nature of that statement has gone relatively unexamined. While that is not the exact purpose of Richard Linklater’s Bernie it is a welcomed side effect. In Bernie Linklater tells the story of Bernie, an eccentric funeral director that completely takes over a small Texas town. Instead of presenting this story in a normal biographical framework Linklater uses a combination of actors and real life townspeople by weaving them in through documentary style interviews and actual scripted scenes. With this blend of fact and possibly fiction we get a fascinating portrait into...
- 4/6/2013
- by Dan Clark
- Nerdly
Bernie
Review by Dan Clark
Stars: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey | Written by Richard Linklater, Skip Hollandsworth | Directed by Richard Linklater
Fact is always stranger than fiction. That statement has been a part of our popular lexicon for as long as I can remember. Even with its common use the factual nature of that statement has gone relatively unexamined. While that is not the exact purpose of Richard Linklater’s Bernie it is a welcomed side effect. In Bernie Linklater tells the story of Bernie, an eccentric funeral director that completely takes over a small Texas town. Instead of presenting this story in a normal biographical framework Linklater uses a combination of actors and real life townspeople by weaving them in through documentary style interviews and actual scripted scenes. With this blend of fact and possibly fiction we get a fascinating portrait into the world of Bernie and the unbelievable life he lives.
Review by Dan Clark
Stars: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey | Written by Richard Linklater, Skip Hollandsworth | Directed by Richard Linklater
Fact is always stranger than fiction. That statement has been a part of our popular lexicon for as long as I can remember. Even with its common use the factual nature of that statement has gone relatively unexamined. While that is not the exact purpose of Richard Linklater’s Bernie it is a welcomed side effect. In Bernie Linklater tells the story of Bernie, an eccentric funeral director that completely takes over a small Texas town. Instead of presenting this story in a normal biographical framework Linklater uses a combination of actors and real life townspeople by weaving them in through documentary style interviews and actual scripted scenes. With this blend of fact and possibly fiction we get a fascinating portrait into the world of Bernie and the unbelievable life he lives.
- 8/10/2012
- by Guest
- Nerdly
Bernie
Written by Skip Hollandsworth and Richard Linklater
Directed by Richard Linklater
USA, 2012
Bernie’s a really nice guy. I mean really nice. There are a lot of people in Carthage, Texas that still think so, even though he just shot an old woman in the back four times.
Bernie (Jack Black, in a performance as good as any in his career) is the local assistant funeral director in the small town of Carthage, Texas. Bernie might be gay, he’s actively involved in local theater productions, and he’s a spendthrift. Bernie’s specialty is comforting old widows, so when Marjorie Nugent’s (Shirley MacLaine) oil-rich husband dies, he’s immediately on the case. Marjorie and Bernie quickly become the odd-couple, but their relationship rapidly evolves from one of friendship to servitude, taking its toll on Bernie’s perpetually sunny disposition and leading to a surprising crime.
Jack Black...
Written by Skip Hollandsworth and Richard Linklater
Directed by Richard Linklater
USA, 2012
Bernie’s a really nice guy. I mean really nice. There are a lot of people in Carthage, Texas that still think so, even though he just shot an old woman in the back four times.
Bernie (Jack Black, in a performance as good as any in his career) is the local assistant funeral director in the small town of Carthage, Texas. Bernie might be gay, he’s actively involved in local theater productions, and he’s a spendthrift. Bernie’s specialty is comforting old widows, so when Marjorie Nugent’s (Shirley MacLaine) oil-rich husband dies, he’s immediately on the case. Marjorie and Bernie quickly become the odd-couple, but their relationship rapidly evolves from one of friendship to servitude, taking its toll on Bernie’s perpetually sunny disposition and leading to a surprising crime.
Jack Black...
- 6/9/2012
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
Film: Bernie (2011) Cast includes: Jack Black (The School of Rock), Matthew McConaughey (The Lincoln Lawyer), Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment) Director: Richard Linklater (Fast Food Nation, The School of Rock) Genre: Dark Comedy | Crime (104 minutes) Bernie would settle for nothing less than perfection when it came to "cosmetizing, dressing and casketing" the deceased. But it wasn't just his dedication to "final procedures" that made Bernie so popular... "he was a real people person." When Don Leggett was looking for an assistant funeral director, Bernie had such a "magnetic personality, I hired him over the phone... I really hit the jackpot with Bernie." "Bernie was about the most popular man in Carthage." As popular as Bernie was, few would have predicted that Bernie could soften the heart of Marjorie Nugent. But after her husband was laid to rest, Bernie did what Bernie always did... visiting the widows. He regularly dropped by...
- 4/30/2012
- by Leslie Sisman
- Moviefone
Roughly ten years ago, Austin indie filmmaker Richard Linklater and comedian Jack Black came together for the rock comedy School of Rock , which to date, is still Linklater's most successful movie. (Actually, it's made more than all his other movies combined.) Now they've reunited for Bernie , a very different movie also based on a real life story, that of Bernie Tiede, a funeral home director in Carthage, Texas, who becomes the close friend and confidante of a rich widow named Marjorie Nugent, played by the legendary Shirley MacLaine. When Marjorie is found dead in an ice chest in her garage after disappearing for nine months, Bernie is the only suspect, but he's so well-liked among the rural community, it becomes almost impossible for prosecutor Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey,...
- 4/30/2012
- Comingsoon.net
Does a single act define a lifetime? In the unfortunate case of Bernie Tiede, it seems to have. Otherwise a kind, caring, outgoing and lovable man, Bernie is the story of how a companion from hell can drag you down with them. Jack Black‘s lovable effeminate assistant funeral home director carries the film along a joyful path that twists into a darkness that is both humorous and sad. This is based in real life and, as such, has an odd air of sadness around it. Someone actually went through this. Set in Texas as nearly all of the best Richard Linklater films are, this is one dark comedy that will actually get one talking afterwards.
In Carthage, Texas, there is a kind mortician named Bernie Tiede (Black). He often befriends the older widows, but his relationship always seems purely platonic. When Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) becomes the newest widow,...
In Carthage, Texas, there is a kind mortician named Bernie Tiede (Black). He often befriends the older widows, but his relationship always seems purely platonic. When Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) becomes the newest widow,...
- 4/27/2012
- by [email protected] (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
It may be tough to get a consensus reaction to Bernie. The latest Texas-based film from Richard Linklater changes tones throughout as it moves from comedy, dark comedy, to trial farce. The fact that it’s actually based on a real story of murder and regret is troubling to realize as you laugh and you begin to question whether someone who committed such a terrible crime is really troubled or just had a very bad day. I had the opportunity to sit down at SXSW for a roundtable interview with Linklater and Matthew McConaughey as we discuss the tone, meeting Bernie and the other real-life counterparts, and much more.
In some of your best movies you play a lawyer. There’s The Lincoln Lawyer, A Time to Kill, Amistad…and you wanted to be a lawyer originally?
Matthew McConaughey: I did. That’s where I was heading, and then...
In some of your best movies you play a lawyer. There’s The Lincoln Lawyer, A Time to Kill, Amistad…and you wanted to be a lawyer originally?
Matthew McConaughey: I did. That’s where I was heading, and then...
- 4/26/2012
- by [email protected] (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Ever since his debut, “Slacker,” earned him a spot on the national filmmaking stage, Richard Linklater has been one of Texas’ favorite sons. It’s certainly helped that so many of his movies not only took place in the state, but paid real and honest tribute to its citizens, without insult or parody. But in “Bernie,” his latest, he skirts that line between celebrating and satirizing Texans with his retelling of the true story of Bernie Tiede, a funeral director who killed an elderly widow and threatened to go free thanks to his hometown’s near-universal affection for the man. Jack Black stars as the title character, and Matthew McConaughey plays the self-aggrandizing prosecutor who despite his legitimate pursuit of justice ultimately proves to be the film’s unexpected villain.
The Playlist sat down with Linklater and McConaghey last week at the SXSW, where “Bernie” had its regional premiere. In...
The Playlist sat down with Linklater and McConaghey last week at the SXSW, where “Bernie” had its regional premiere. In...
- 3/19/2012
- by Todd Gilchrist
- The Playlist
Matthew McConaughey is reteaming with his Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater for his newest role—so does that mean we can expect more wisdom from pot-smoking character David Wooderson? Not so much, actually. McConaughey—and Rip Torn!—joins the black comedy Bernie, which is surprisingly based on a true story, alongside Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine. The actor’s role sounds like it couldn’t be farther from Wooderson.
The story goes like this: Black portrays Bernie, a funeral home director in small-town Texas who makes friends with a widow played by Shirley MacLaine. Black eventually kills her and...
The story goes like this: Black portrays Bernie, a funeral home director in small-town Texas who makes friends with a widow played by Shirley MacLaine. Black eventually kills her and...
- 10/1/2010
- by Tanner Stransky
- EW.com - PopWatch
Matthew McConaughey has scored the role of district attorney Danny Buck Davidson in Richard Linklater's black comedy “Bernie" reports Dallas News and Production Weekly.
Based on a true story, Jack Black stars as a small-town Texas funeral home director whom befriends a wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine), murders her and stores her in her own freezer.
Skip Hollandsworth, who penned the original 1998 story about the real life case for the Texas Monthly publication, co-wrote the script with Linklater. Filming is scheduled to begin this fall in Austin and Bastrop.
Based on a true story, Jack Black stars as a small-town Texas funeral home director whom befriends a wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine), murders her and stores her in her own freezer.
Skip Hollandsworth, who penned the original 1998 story about the real life case for the Texas Monthly publication, co-wrote the script with Linklater. Filming is scheduled to begin this fall in Austin and Bastrop.
- 9/30/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
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