Bernie 7

A brilliantly droll faux-documentary by Richard Linklater in which all the fun comes from laughing at the East Texan talking heads – and since these are mainly real East Texans we don’t feel guilty about laughing at them, instead of with them, although that is mainly what we are doing. The three real actors – Matthew McConaughy, Shirley MacLaine and Jack Black – by comparison seem out of place, and this is especially, almost fatally, true for Jack Black who plays an uptight nerd even though we know he is one of the coolest dudes on the planet. It’s good acting, but hardly worth the viewer’s effort to overcome this preconception. In all, the whole thing goes down easy, like biscuits and gravy with sweet tea.