Richard Linklater makes films that are as varied as they are piquantly challenging. With BERNIE, based on a true story, he considers a good and universally beloved man who does a bad thing to a spiteful and universally despised woman. When I spoke to him on April 20, 2012, the whole idea of justice and its relationship to the law was definitely one of the things I wanted to discuss with him, but I started with the insightful way he depicted life in a small southern town, as only someone who comes from one could. In a conversation that has the atmosphere of a chat on a front porch, he was soft-spoken with an easy laugh as talked about the sense of community in small towns  gossip as a social necessity there, and realizing that this is his first cinematic murder.  Maybe.