A pleasant surprise. Linklater doesn't shoot for the moon, but serves up some enjoyable regional and character-based humor. Jack Black's incredible comic talent is put to its best use creating a character who's as skilled and natural a performer as he is, which might be why he's able to be funny without feeling the need to step outside the character, as many other comics would. Shirley MacLaine, on the other hand, mostly struck me as a distracting presence who brought little except an added star name to the film.