Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
In small-town Texas, affable and popular mortician Bernie Tiede strikes up a friendship with Marjorie Nugent, a wealthy widow well known for her sour attitude. When she becomes controlling and abusive, Bernie goes to great lengths to remove himself from her grasp.
Bernie is a genuinely distinctive dark comedy that blends mockumentary-style interviews with real Carthage residents, giving it a one-of-a-kind texture that few crime comedies achieve. Jack Black delivers a career-best performance, and Matthew McConaughey is scene-stealing as the grandstanding DA, making Acting a clear standout. The storytelling conceit — intercutting staged drama with real townspeople defending a confessed murderer — is inventively executed and earns a high Novelty mark. The plot itself is engaging but somewhat episodic and dependent on the true-story hook for its momentum rather than narrative drive. The ending, while true to life, lands a bit flatly in dramatic terms, resolving more with a legal shrug than a satisfying payoff.