Jack Black plays a Texan named Bernhardt Tiede II, better known around Carthage as Bernie, an assistant funeral home director and church choir director. A good “people person,” he treats the living and the dead with loving care. In the first scene of “Bernie” he passes along this tip to mortuary science students: apply Super-Glue to keep shut the eyes of the deceased and casketed. After interring her well-off husband, Bernie befriends Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), an easy-to-hate widow who will employ him as a caretaker, shopper, chauffeur and cruise-ship escort. Their relationship ends badly, as detailed in Skip Hollandsworth’s 1998 Texas Monthly article titled “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas.” Regionalist director Richard Linklater co-writes what he calls a “dark comedy” based on colorfully off-color lore. Carthage locals appear in character for documentary-style recollections of sweet Bernie and mean Marjorie. The true-crime source material proves irresistible for over-easy eye-rolling if not knee-slapping. With Matthew McConaughey. 104m. (Bill Stamets)
“Bernie” opens Friday at Landmark Century and Evanston CineArts