“BERNIE”
Based upon a Texas Monthly article written by Skip Hollandsworth
Screenplay Written by Richard Linklater and Skip Hollandsworth
Directed by Richard Linklater
**** (four stars)
Now this was a enormous surprise!!!!
Dear readers, the pleasure of going to the movies, especially when I know little to nothing about it is one of life’s many gifts as far as I am concerned. It is such wonderful feeling to head into something without any pre-conceived notions and just allow yourself to be swept away by a great story. Writer/Director Richard Linklater’s “Bernie” is such a great story and it is a tale greatly told.
So far this year, I have awarded several films my highest rating of four stars and here is yet one more to join the bunch. I assure all of you that I am not feeling to be in a particularly generous mood as I do not take the award of four stars lightly. Whether my recent ratings speak to the overall quality of the 2012 cinematic year, I cannot be certain. To that end, which films will ultimately end up as my ten favorite films of 2012 remains to be seen, of course. But, all I can say is that I know for my own tastes and sensibilities, I know what works, what does not and how stories affect me as I watch them. “Bernie” is a film I could not find any fault with. It grabbed me instantly and carried me along with it effortlessly. I feel it is one of Richard Linklater’s most accessible and entertaining films, quite an achievement for a filmmaker as varied and idiosyncratic as he has been over the years. With selections like his groundbreaking debut feature “Slacker” (1991), which was followed by the likes of the seminal “Dazed and Confused” (1993), the gorgeously conversational, romantic and literate “Before Sunrise” (1995) and its sequel “Before Sunset” (2004), his esoteric, psychedelically animated and philosophical features “Waking Life” (2001) and “A Scanner Darkly” (2006) and of course, his mammoth crowd pleaser “School Of Rock” (2003), Linklater has continued to be a filmmaker who has completely followed his own artistic path without apologies…as well as he should! The joy of a filmmaker of Linklater’s status and abilities is that you will never know exactly where he will take you next. Certainly seeing his name attached to any new project piques my interest and in this case, knowing that he would be re-teaming with the incredible Jack Black indeed told me to get myself to the Sundance theater. What I received, as a result, was a work of excellence fueled by what I consider to be Jack Black’s finest and most realized performance to date.
To keep “Bernie” as fresh as possible for you, I will do my very best to not really reveal terribly much. Based upon a real life crime event, “Bernie” stars Jack Black as the titular Bernie Teide, a genteel, soft spoken, effeminate mortician who quickly and supremely ingratiates himself to the entire community of Carthage, Texas. His kindness, openness, generosity, respect for all, hard work ethic and complete excellence with his craft affords him a deep admiration and nearly iron clad reputation throughout the entire town, most particularly with the “little old ladies” he tends to keep his company with.
The formidable Shirley MacLaine portrays the wealthy widow Marjorie Nugent, utterly and completely despised throughout Carthage for her bottomless vitriol and endless meanness. Matthew McConaughey rounds out the main cast as local District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson, whose reputation for relentless crime fighting merged with a flair for opportunistic theatrics with the local media has garnered him a most skeptical status within the community. How these three lives intertwine, and how a real life murder occurred, can be found out once you get yourselves out to the theater and see this thing for yourselves!
This time, that’s all I am going to give you for I do want for you to take the time and spend your movie-going money on a film this strong. To give you even more of an excited push, the film “Bernie” reminded quite a bit of Clint Eastwood’s wonderful adaptation of “Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil” (1997), as he housed a murder within our immersion into the culture and characters of New Orleans. Furthermore, the film “Bernie” reminded me of the most was none other than The Coen brothers’ masterpiece, “Fargo” (1996). Yes, I do believe that Linklater’s latest is a film of this high quality. That film brilliantly merged a murder mystery and crime element with the life and regional flavor of wintry Minnesota, allowing the grim comedy and beating heart of the story and performances to lay directly within our immersion in this particular locale. “Bernie” supremely accomplishes the same feat. Yes, this is a film with crime and punishment at its core, but it a film that is really about a location and its inhabitants which is very unfamiliar to the rest of the country and perhaps, the world.
While I will get to the performance of Jack Black and his cast mates very shortly, I would offer that sticking to the film’s adherence to its location, the film’s greatest asset are Linklater’s generous inclusion of the wide variety of real life residents of Carthage, Texas who lived through this particular event and actually knew the real people. Linklater populates the film with interview segments starring the Carthage locals, allowing them to talk, talk, and talk some more, dropping their own priceless nuggets of town gossip and personal perceptions. Because of that crucial element, it feels as if we are receiving an oral history of Carthage, Texas. I assure all of you that this is not dry, tepid storytelling and filmmaking. Linklater ensures that all of those sequences and people are presented in a completely conversational fashion, creating a feeling as if they are speaking directly to you and revealing their town’s greatest secrets. With “Bernie” Linklater gives us the richness of real life and injects into the dream world of the cinema and it makes for compelling and often extremely funny storytelling.
Because of all of this lively banter from one end of the film to the other, Linklater ensure that his film becomes a story that is about so much more than a murder. “Bernie” is a story about popularity and public perceptions and how those elements play out during a horrific crime and the court of public opinion. What is a monster? Who is really a victim? And in the case of McConaughey’s District Attorney character, is he a man just doing his job, a bully or even a self-absorbed media whore out for even more attention with a high profile criminal case? Linklater never at any point makes this material ponderous or plodding. He keeps the proceedings flowing along with a breezy pace and style but he leaves you with much to mentally chomp upon once the final credits begin to scroll.
While MacLaine is truly a force of nature as the horrible Marjorie Nugent, she always ensure that this woman is understandably human and never presented as a cartoon. She is as razor sharp as she has ever been in the movies and it was a pleasure to witness her untouchable talents once again. Matthew McConaughey’s laconic style and subversive brand of humor served him extremely well in his role.
But, I must spend some time extolling my praise for the performance given by Jack Black, which I truly hope is remembered during awards season. Yes, he is that good. Black is someone whom I have admired and enjoyed for many, many years yet whose talents have not always been served well in the movies. While the wonderful “School Of Rock” and Stephen Frears’ outstanding adaptation of “High Fidelity” (2000) showcased Black’s talents supremely as they merged character with his unhinged rock maniac persona, I also felt that Peter Jackson utilized him very successfully by toning his antics down and forcing him to solely serve a character in his epic retelling of “King Kong” (2005). For “Bernie,” I feel that I have witnessed Black’s most realized, three dimensional performance to date as Linklater has taken all of Black’s impressive skills plus our own perceptions of him and funneled everything into this man, who while likeable also comes off as quite the enigma.
Just take a moment and picture Jack Black in your mind. And now imagine him as a soft spoken, impeccably dressed, meticulously professional, conservative and evangelical yet fair minded man who carries a taste for life’s finer things, an endlessly giving spirit to others and also carries a predilection for the company of older women and finally, who may also be a closeted homosexual. Jack Black performs this character without even one self-knowing wink to the audience. He works completely from the inside out, making this individual feel entirely authentic as well as the embodiment of the townspeople’s wealth of stories and memories. He never treats this man as a joke and never, ever for one instant as a caricature. Black utilizes all of his skills for the role of Bernie Tiede, including his excellent signing voice, which is utilized often in the film for a variety of church hymns, country ballads and spirituals and a couple of local theater show tunes. So appealing is Black, that we are placed within the same position as the Carthage inhabitants as the story takes a dark turn. We feel an odd affection for this very unusual man and more than that, we truly understand him as well. For fear of revealing too much I should not say much more but when you do see this film, I challenge you to tell me that this performance is not Jack Black’s shining moment as an actor. To know that he had this inside of him, makes me anxious to see what else he’s got!
Dear readers, I know that you have all seen “The Avengers” already and for some of you, I would not be surprised if you have seen it two or three times even. Hey, I want to see that film a few more times myself before the end of the summer. But people, trust me, you don’t need to be bludgeoned by the likes of “Battleship.” And frankly, do you really care about anything that occurs in “Men In Black 3”? If you want to see filmmaking excellence, then seek Richard Linklater’s Bernie” out quickly! Films like these need the support of our hard-earned dollar so much more than the big budget pictures that will keep being made regardless.
“Bernie” is more than worth your time and I sincerely hope that you do give this film the chance it richly deserves.
No comments:
Post a Comment