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Critics Consensus: Paterno, elevated by deft direction from Barry Levinson and a strong Al Pacino performance, presents a hard-hitting dramatization of a gut-wrenching real-life story.
Critic Consensus: Paterno, elevated by deft direction from Barry Levinson and a strong Al Pacino performance, presents a hard-hitting dramatization of a gut-wrenching real-life story.
All Critics (39) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (12)
Brilliant as ever, [Al] Pacino is the master trickster who manages to both demonize and humanize Paterno.
Mr. Levinson lays this out with considerable skill and energy.
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.
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.
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
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.
Paterno attempts to say a lot of things about a lot of different subject matters... None of them are achieved particularly well.
The movie takes on an interesting topic but narrows it too much that it misses why the story is interesting and important.
I don't think that the film gives you a full perspective of what this sex scandal is, how [Paterno] was involved and how Sandusky was involved.
Pacino may collect awards for his thoughtful, moving performance, but he can't make the script a unified experience. Paterno is worth watching, but I'd rather see his next role.
A well-acted and damning indictment of institutions and people far beyond the myopic title character.
The Penn State sex-abuse scandal exposed complicity in college sports, but Barry Levinson's drama about the school's legendary football coach only skims the surface of the culture that allowed it happen
Child abuse, ethics and morality and idolatry are the major themes that run through Barry Levinson's movie Paterno. Framed through the Pulitizer Prize winning investigative work of Sara Ganim (Riley Keough) director Barry Levinson juggles all these themes and delivers a credible film dedicated to detailing the what did Penn State football coaching legends Joe Paterno know about the actions of serial child rapist Jerry Sandusky and when did he know it. Performances all around are excellent. Place Al Pacino's performance as one of his finest.
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