Bernie (2011) - Linklater, Black and Hollandsworth's incredible true-crime dramedy

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1 Time Film Excess Award Winner:

Best Actor: Jack Black

1 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Actor: Jack Black (won)

+ Best True-Crime Movie of the Year

The stars of Richard Linklater's Bernie are game. - Are you?

Bernie Tiede is the incredibly well-liked undertaker of Carthage, Texas, who becomes the life partner of a rich, difficult widow. SPOILER Until the day he can't take her anymore, - and kills her.

Bernie is an enthusiastic, original, wildly enjoyable film, an touching and funny true-crime story co-written by Texan master filmmaker Richard Linklater (Boyhood (2014)) and Skip Hollandsworth (Suburban Madness (2004)), who also wrote the 1998 article that the film is based on.
Jack Black (School of Rock (2003)) is a gem as the effervescent title character, and his musical number in the film is pure gold. - Bernie makes one wish that Black would get a starring role in a large, old-fashioned musical some day sooner rather than later. It is a wonderful film about the sweetest man, (who just happens to become a criminal.)
The aftermath of the film has been considerable: Real life Bernie Tiede was released from jail in 2014 on the condition that he stay in Linklater's garage! The film seems to have impacted justice, as even prosecutor Davidson (portrayed by Matthew McConaughey (Mud (2012))) has now admitted that Tiede did not deserve SPOILER his sentence for first-degree murder.
Linklater is now executive producing a coming TV-series reworking of his School of Rock (without Black or anyone else from the original masterpiece), and directing a coming film about young baseball players, That's What I'm Talking About (2015). - Whether Tiede is still living in his garage remains unknown.

Related posts:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Shirley MacLaine and Jack Black fit the screen hand in glove in Richard Linklater's Bernie

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 9.2 mil. $ (US only)
= Flop
[Bernie also made around 0.7 mil. $ in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, but a complete world gross is not released to my knowledge. The film was a critical smash; Black was Golden Globe nominated as Best Actor for it, and it won Rotten Tomatoes Golden Tomato award for best reviewed comedy released in 2012, (although it screened first in 2011's Los Angeles Film Festival.]

What do you think of Bernie?
Other similarly unlikely true-crime story movies that you want to recommend?

Another Year (2010) or, Life in England

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2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Screenplay: Mike Leigh (lost to Christopher Nolan for Inception) 
Best Lead Actress: Lesley Manville (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia)

+ Best Dramedy of the Year

German poster version featuring a big tree shedding its leaves, evoking the film's melancholic tendency, for Mike Leigh's  Another Year

Another Year centers on the married couple Tom & Gerrie, who have an allotment garden and seem to have cracked how to live a happy life. We observe them with the people around them for a year. They have, - the majority of them, - not broken the same code to life that Tom & Gerrie have.

Great, British writer-director Mike Leigh (Career Girls (1997)) serves an incredibly sober dance with his (often) drunk countrymen here. The writing, presentation and acting is so authentic and talented that the sparks catch fire, and a truly moving film about the fickle, human condition results. Especially Lesley Manville's (Fleming (2014), TV-series) difficult performance as Mary must be singled out; she gives a truly great performance here with a firmly lasting resonance to it.
Another Year is a very fine drama with outstanding performances, - and with welcome streaks of humor laced in it throughout, a film that should not be missed.
Bravo!

Related posts:



Mike Leigh: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
All or Nothing (2002) - Leigh wrangles more working class destinies with great performances 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 19.7 mil. $
= Minor flop (returned 2.46 times its cost)
[Another Year premiered 15 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 129 minutes. The budget was helped by a 1.2 mil. £ grant from the UK Film Council, but Leigh commented it was his lowest "for a long time." Shooting took place following the director's usual extensive rehearsals, running for 12 weeks between May - December 2009 in England, including London. The film opened #30 to a 111k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 236 theaters, grossing 3.2 mil. $ (16.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 2.9 mil. $ (14.7 %) and main production country the UK with 2.7 mil. $ (13.7 %). The film was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, lost to David Seidler for The King's Speech. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, 4 British Independent Film awards, a David di Donatello award, 2 European Film awards and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Leigh returned with A Running Jump (2012, short) and theatrically with Mr. Turner (2014). Jim Broadbent (Vanity Fair (2004)) returned in an voice performance and 2 miniseries prior to his theatrical return in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011); Ruth Sheen (Vital Signs (2006, TV-series) in 2 shorts and a TV-series before her theatrical return in Welcome to the Punch (2013); and Manville in Playhouse: Live (2010, TV-series) and then theatrically in Womb (2010). Another Year is certified fresh at 92 % with an 8.15/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Another Year?