Bernie

With “Bernie,” actor Jack Black and director Richard Linklater achieve a partial return to grace. Both men are genuine pop eccentrics whose careers have stalled in recent years, Black’s with mainstream crud like “Gulliver’s Travels,” Linklater’s with oddities like “Me and Orson Welles.” Their previous film together, 2003’s “The School of Rock,” was a commercial high-water mark for both men and, in a way, “Bernie” offers the duo a fresh beginning. It’s a true-crime black comedy that lets Linklater reconnect with the fondness for Texas oddballs that animated early films like “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused.” At the same time, Black gets to play an actual character instead of a loudmouthed cartoon. The movie’s bright and endearing and surprisingly lacking in a point. I wish I liked it better, but it’s a start.