Backstory: I was perusing Rotten Tomatoes' Critical Consensus for the weekend. The big releases get prominence, of course, but at the end they provide the Tomatometer for some of the small releases followed by a quick one line blurb.

It was there that I read about Bernie. It's a comedy at just over 80% positive. Nothing really grabbed me until I read the one line that followed. It didn't sound that interesting except...it said that the movie was written/directed by Richard Linklater!?!

What the hell? I still regard Linklater as one of the more interesting writer/directors around. How is a new Linklater movie not bigger news among the cinephile crowd? I mean, I didn't even know he was making this whereas stills from Django are a huge deal.

Has Linklater's star really fallen that much? Did anyone know about this movie?? Is anyone interested to see it??? And why hasn't James (a big Linklater fan himself) reviewed it????

Haha, I literally did the same thing when I was on RT yesterday. It's getting positive reviews, it might be something worth seeing.

I'd never heard of Bernie. Interesting cast.

I don't think people are that interested in Linklater anymore which is a shame. Browsing over his filmography for the past decade, apart from Before Sunset, do you think there is anything that has bordered on the excellence of Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise Waking Life and the his most underated film, Tape? Actually, just typing that I know what you mean.

He's made some excellent films and should be given more respect, period.

I knew about Bernie for a while. Had it opened in my area this week I would have seen it. A combination dark comedy/drama of the variety that Linklater does well. Got it on the saved part of my Netflix que for if I don't get to see it in theaters.

Linklater to me has always been one of the more overlooked directors on the scene today. In some ways his career parallells Soderbergh's although he's edgier than Soderbergh.



In regards to the first part of that, I attribute the problem to the fact that a lot of people who go to movies nowadays (specifically the late teens-late 20s) have a cinematic frame of reference that seems to start with The Fast And The Furious and end at Transformers. To them a movie like Dazed And Confused or Before Sunrise is older than Julius Caesar.

As for the second part, I liked A Scanner Darkly a lot. Fast Food Nation I admired the intention behind more than I did the actual result. Some of the threads in it were good yet they didn't mesh together as well as they should have. Have yet to see Me And Orson Welles.

Anyway, Linklater to me is a great director. But his unwlligness to play the Hollywood game has caused him to be neglected by much of the public.

Rotten had an interview with Jack Black and that's pretty much the only reason why I was in the know about Bernie, and that wasn't even that long ago. I sure would like to see it, though. Linklater's cool.

After doing very well in the first few weeks of limited release, buzz is picking up. But the reason you haven't heard of it much is it's being distributed by Millenium Entertainment, who just can't afford the same ad exposure of a bigger indie house like, say, Roadside Attractions. This is their big chance to prove their chops in indie distribution, though. Goes to around 50 sites tomorrow.

Though, come to think of it, Me and Orson Welles had very little buzz for a Linklater film, too... probably because it wasn't a typical Linklater film... I feel like not until Christian McKay began to get nominations did most people here about it.

I'm psyched for Bernie, but it doesn't hit here in San Diego until a week from Friday. Looks like it will be a single theater release, too.

Just saw this today. It may very well be the best Linklater film since A Scanner Darkly if not School Of Rock. The film walks a tricky tightrope between comedy and drama and Linklater manages to keep it on line all the way through. He's helped ably by Black who plays the title character as less scoundrel and more guy with a heart of gold who makes a bad decision. Shirley McClaine is effectively bitchy in her role as teh town meanie. Finally we have Matthew Mcconaughey as the local DA who comes off as a hotshot rather than a virtuous justice seeker.

Easily one of the better movies I've seen so far this year. ***1/2

I saw the film yesterday and its terrific. And it actually shows that Jack Black can play soeone besides Jack Black.

came out on dvd today

Reviewed this for my brand-new, lemon-scented blog over the weekend. I quite liked it -- odd and interesting, understanding of both Bernie and McConaughey's D.A.; he's a smooth-talking publicity hound, but you see where his frustration over so many people offering emotional support for a confessed killer comes from.

7/10

I was actually interested in seeing this until my mother called and told me to see it. "Oh, it was so wonderful," she said. I immediately filed Bernie next to movies like The Runaway Bride, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Asylum and others that fall under the BEWARE heading of my mental filing system. Gotta be careful with what the moms likes to recommend.

My mom's taste in films is hit-and-miss, on the one hand she loves Will Smith, on the other she loves maudlin crap like Sound Of Music.

Then maudlin crap starring Will Smith (Seven Pounds, The Pursuit of Happyness) must be a constant threat in your household.

No, she hasn't seen those films, she likes stuff like Men In Black and I Robot, I never saw Seven Pounds, but I did end up seeing Pursuit Of Happyness in school, it was actually better then I was expecting, at the very least it wasn't unbearable to watch like say Terms Of Endearment.