Netflix pick for 10/14/13 – ‘Bernie’

“Bernie” is a rare kind of movie, because it is a mockumentary about a real life story, so while it has recognizable actors like Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Shirley MacLaine, it is also shot and presented as if these are real people telling their sides of a real story. Helping to blur the lines between reality and cinema are real people involved in the real story, being interviewed for this movie as if they were in a normal documentary, and not a weird yet delightful little movie featuring reenactments of real life events by real life actors.

From my original review of “Bernie:”

“Hiding her body, he then went on a shopping spree with her money by spending it on the community, helping some townspeople start businesses and sending local kids to college. But of course it all crashes down on him eventually, and the local DA Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe) finds that he needs to request a change of venue in order to get a fair trial because Bernie was just so well liked by everyone. And it didn’t help that conversely Mrs. Nugent was remarkably disliked. It’s because of stuff like this that makes this story, and this movie, so fascinating. People accused Bernie of stealing from Mrs. Nugent, but even if he did, it was evident that he was giving all of that money away to other people, like a small town Robin Hood. Everyone likes Robin Hood.”

Check out this delightful little movie here on the Netflix Instant and marvel at Jack Black’s great work and wonder why it didn’t get more attention when this came out back in 2011.