This was an absolute delight.

Linklater proves once again that he as the uncanny ability to get Jack Black to act. In the hands of another director I'm pretty sure this film would have lacked the lightness of touch, the whimsical observations and the beautifully blurred lines between fiction and fact.

Hidden beneath this darkly comic true story Linklater has found a subtle satirical thread running throughout the way it unfolds. Cast in the shape of a mockumentary, alternating between interviews with townsfolk (both the real people and actors) and scenes in which we get to see how the events around Bernie might have happened, the film says a lot about public perception and the way social structures operate in…

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Wait. I'm really confused right now.

Did I, Ariel, Rocks Mother Fucking 5, actually managed to finish something made by Richard Linklater without wanting to kill myself!? And I honestly liked it!? What!?

I mean, I'm not acting like this is some form of revelation of film craft or anything and I only really watched this because I was bored, but for what it's worth, "Bernie" genuinely surprised me with how much I ended up hooked with its main goals.

It made me laugh, it kept me interested, and I had no real clue what would happen next. I was definitely taken off by the documentary style interviews at first, but I grew used them over time because it…

"Grief should not tragically become a comedy"

I want to nominate Jack Black for "One of the Most Punchable Faces in the Universe." He only narrowly wins over Jared Leto.

But despite his chubby mug, he actually churns out a great performance in this movie. In fact, Bernie is Jack Black's most accomplished work. Hell, he is fan-freaking-tastic here. I don't care about his fat face. Bernie is to Jack Black what Punch-Drunk Love was to Adam Sandler.

This film is a little less accomplished, but is still an underrated gem from the great Richard Linklater. Here he touts his versatility in creating one of the finest dark comedies of recent memory. Jack Black like I said, plays his character…

Bernie is a very likeable film - I believe it is impossible to dislike it, it's just so fun and has got a lot of personality, keeping it light and very amusing throughout the entire runtime that there's no way any film fan will find it underwhelming. Well, it is not a perfect achievement and it probably will never achieve the status of “one of the greats”, but it's nonetheless a truly enjoyable piece of cinema, really a great comedy if you ask me. Yet it's not your regular comedy, it's actually a dark and psychological one, but Richard Linklater's magical touch and Jack Black's performance at the movie's core make it a pretty lovable film at the end.

Based…

In a small town, people will always suspect the worst of someone. But they'll also suspect the best.
-Townsperson

I've seen a few films from the self-taught writer/director Richard Linklater and I have to say I still would not be able to identify a piece of his work without already knowing he directed it. His films range in style drastically. You only need to compare Bernie to his other comedy with Jack Black, School of Rock, to find two of his films that seem to be made by different directors.

It's not as if he's only made comedies either, but his more dramatic outings like Before Sunset and experimental work like Waking Life are all drastically different from each other…