Paterno
Starring Al Pacino in the title role, the drama centers on Penn State's Joe Paterno in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. After becoming the winningest coach in college football history, Paterno's legacy is challenged and he is forced to face questions of institutional failure in regard to the victims.
27 August 1974, Long Island, New York, USA
6 March 1955, Los Angeles, California, USA
29 May 1989, Los Angeles, California, USA
28 December 1959, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
April 09, 2018
As a motion picture, Paterno is at odds with itself - playing both as a chamber piece character study and a Spotlight-style investigative journalism procedural - never really finding its true footing.
April 09, 2018
It speaks to viewers with disparate reactions, but it also speaks to anyone who didn't dig into the scandal at the time by outlining what happens when we are too quick to defend the famous faces instead of those claiming to be victimized by them.
April 06, 2018
Now, with the title role in HBO's unsettling and riveting and scathing Paterno, Pacino reminds us of why he's a singular talent.
April 09, 2018
Where this movie may really lose you, though, is when it asks you to care about what and when Paterno knew of the abuse, or even to feel sorry for him.
April 10, 2018
It's the Nittany Lions against the Christians.
April 09, 2018
Mr. Levinson lays this out with considerable skill and energy.
April 09, 2018
Unfortunately, no amount of makeup or prosthetic noses can hold [Al] Pacino back for long, and his growl is so loud sometimes that it overpowers the vision of the wounded god Paterno became.
April 10, 2018
Not too creative or moving.
April 06, 2018
Through Aaron and Ganim's "Spotlight"-style reporting, Paterno finally puts a human face on the Sandusky atrocities.
April 06, 2018
Yes, it's interesting to watch Paterno's end as his family tries to rally around him, but there are too-few glimpses of Penn St. in his heyday, when he and others conveniently looked the other way.
April 06, 2018
Such a brutal referendum on how deflections, euphemisms, and clichés keep us from having to know what victims went through.
April 06, 2018
Al Pacino's Paterno is so convincing, and eerily lifelike it becomes necessary from time to time, to remember that this isn't the actual coach
