Phil Spector

As the preferred method of national catharsis is putting Al Pacino in a wig and having him shout things, here is HBO’s Phil Spector, which joins his Jack Kevorkian movie You Don’t Know Jack and that upcoming Joe Paterno biopic in a loose Pacino trilogy about controversial men. This time it’s the famed producer who, as Pacino puts it in this preview, made the songs that soundtracked the first time you were ever felt up (indeed, so many sweet, sticky fumblings to the Ramones’ “Chinese Rock”), which only makes him all the more incensed that he has to answer to the courts, just because he maybe, kind of shot actress Lana Clarkson. Outside a few flashbacks, Spector seems to focus almost exclusively on the days surrounding that trial, as Pacino literally flips his wig several times over and yells David Mamet dialogue at defense attorneys Helen Mirren and Jeffrey Tambor. Those hoping for a more comprehensive biopic approach to Spector’s life will just have to wait; this is Pacino’s Wall of Loud Sounds.