…only David Mamet would be so deliberately obtuse as to make a feature-length film about a famous trial and halt the action before the trial even starts…Pacino is on top form, matched every inch of the way by Helen Mirren as attorney Linda Kenney Baden…

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 11, 2024

Pacino is excellent, savouring Mamet's script and disappearing into this figure who has a God-complex and is, at the same time, a god in the music industry.

| Jun 11, 2020

Victims' rights groups have openly worried that the movie will call into question the nineteen-year sentence Spector received... They needn't worry. The film is no challenge to anything except the careers of those involved with it.

| Oct 17, 2018

Spector is almost the platonic ideal of the crazy showbiz madman. He makes a great fit for Pacino, who has for once found a character so charismatically odd that he doesn't need to overact to keep himself interested.

| Jul 13, 2017

Mamet's film isn't sure what the hell to make of Spector. But, strangely, that's part of what makes it so compelling.

| Jun 21, 2016

The movie broadens from Spector's legal case into larger explorations of prejudices people can harbor about celebrities and eccentrics. The result is a thoughtful, sometimes fascinating, purposefully inconclusive character study.

Full Review | May 28, 2013

Pacino seldom fails to cut straight to the soul of a character who is both brilliant and pathetic.

| Original Score: B+ | May 24, 2013

Even with a Mamet screenplay and actors like Mr. Pacino and Ms. Mirren there is not much anyone can do to make the audience care.

| May 22, 2013

It's better than most films of its kind, even as it remains unsatisfying as historical re-creation, philosophical meditation or pure drama.

| May 22, 2013

Pacino and Mirren's teamwork keeps Phil Spector watchable even when it's dousing itself in dramatic ethanol and lighting a match.

| May 22, 2013

The film is an engrossing drama, with a dazzling performance by Al Pacino in the title role.

| May 22, 2013

It's an insidious whitewash of a convicted killer and an infamous smear of his victim. It's a shame on all involved.

Full Review | May 22, 2013

A frustrating film that leaves the questions -- pretty much all of them -- unanswered.

| Original Score: C- | May 22, 2013

Mirren and Pacino are fantastic, and Tambor rightfully underplays the larger-than-life Cutler, who rivals Spector himself.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 22, 2013

As we're treated to another nonsensical, repetitive soliloquy about the victimization of a violent millionaire, it's worth noting that the Wall of Sound required an echo chamber.

Full Review | May 22, 2013

Mamet will succeed in planting doubt (reasonable or not) in viewers' minds in this account of the murder trial of the larger-than-life Spector, brilliantly embodied by Pacino.

| May 22, 2013

Both actors are great and Mamet's gift with dialogue remains intact but the plotting and choice of storytelling in Phil Spector makes for a final product that doesn't make enough of a statement or tell us much about its title subject.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 22, 2013

As you can probably tell, I found the message behind Phil Spector pretty laughable. As drama, it's not particularly convincing either, even with Mamet's rat-a-tat-tat flair for dialogue mostly intact.

Full Review | May 22, 2013

A stronger film could have inspired questions about the legal system, celebrity or the actual personalities involved in this case. The only question Phil Spector inspires is, "What's the point?"

Full Review | Original Score: C | May 22, 2013

Phil Spector is missing dramatic tension.

| May 22, 2013