Movies You Might Have Missed: Richard Linklater's Bernie

Jack Black gives his finest screen performance in this film about a man for whom even a murder conviction cannot sully his good name

Jack Black’s Bernie is quite unlike any character the actor has played before or since

Richard Linklater is one of the most intriguing filmmakers working today. From early work like Slacker and Dazed and Confused to the Before trilogy and Boyhood, he has consistently examined the reality of human relationships with a naturalism and precision unrivalled on screen.

Having worked together on School of Rock in 2003, the director reunited with Jack Black in 2011 for Bernie, a gentle but affecting film inspired by real-life events that has recently been added to Netflix.

Black stars as Bernhardt “Bernie” Tiede, a man so well-loved in Carthage, East Texas that even confessing to the murder of his 80-year-old companion was not enough to sully his good name. Indeed, such was the affection of the local people towards Bernie that the district attorney was forced to take the almost unprecedented step of requesting a prosecutorial change of venue in order to ensure a fair trial.

Principal photography took just 22 days and the skilful blend of documentary and fiction aids the moral ambiguity of the work. Linklater includes talking-head interviews with local gossips; some are actors and others are townspeople playing themselves. Somewhat predictably, the reaction in Carthage to the film was mixed with some maintaining that a dark comedy was not an appropriate response to the murder of an octogenarian.

The great Shirley MacLaine is on fine form here as an emotionally abusive tyrant, a far cry from her performance as the heroine in The Apartment half a century earlier. Black, however, is a revelation. The actor met with the real Bernie prior to the shoot and the preparation paid off as he produces his finest screen performance. Black’s Bernie is quite unlike any character he’s played before or since, a sympathetic but damaged individual whose past remains shrouded in mystery.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Bernie was the aftermath of its release. Austin-based attorney Jodi Cole saw the film and requested a meeting with Linklater to discuss the case. After conversations with Tiede in prison, Cole began work on a habeas corpus petition to raise significant issues not addressed in the previous appeal. The result was that the real Bernie was released from his life sentence in May 2014 on the condition that he live in the film director’s garage apartment until the time of his resentencing.

We can only hope that one day Linklater makes a sequel about the two years he lived with a convicted murderer, but for now let’s make do with this darkly comic gem.