Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Offside
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Universal acclaim
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Jafar Panahi
Shadmehr Rastin
Directed by: Jafar Panahi
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 23, 2007
DVD: August 28, 2007
Running Time: 93 minutes, Color
Origin: Iran
Language(s): Persian (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: PG for language throughout, and some thematic elements
Starring Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi, Golnaz Farmani, Mahnaz Zabihi, Nazanin Sediq-zadeh, Melika Shafahi, and Safdar Samandar
Offside is a smart comedy illustrating the fight for women's rights in Iran. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Crimson Gold The Circle
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Jafar Panahi of Iran is one of his country's great filmmakers, and Offside is his best movie to date.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
It's a sports film unlike any other, and a political film that makes the personal profound.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Jafar Panahi's wonderfully funny, outspoken shaggy-dog story, a light counterweight to his sadder 2000 feminist drama "The Circle."
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The interaction between soldiers and captives becomes a microcosm for an entire culture. It's a wisp of a movie but it has stayed with me longer than much supposedly weightier fare.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Offside is blatantly metaphoric and powerfully concrete, deceptively simple and highly sophisticated in its formal intelligence.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
This is Iranian cinema at its most accessible: a bit slow even in its 92 minutes, with more environment than story, but deeply immersive and thought-provoking, and quite often funny.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
In the midst of his many other achievements here -- his documentary realism, his wry humanism, his allegorical subtlety -- Panahi even manages to redeem the good name of toilet humour.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Director Jafar Panahi has long been an eloquent and passionate representative for Iranian women. But judging by this deeply poignant comedy, they may not need a mouthpiece much longer.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Poignant and sometimes downright hilarious, much of the film unfolds in the small area outside the arena -- an "offside" penalty box for women who just won't behave.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
The masterly Panahi concocts a spellbinding, often corrosively and/or warmly funny story in which love of both country and sport tries to, but doesn't quite, transcend dogmatic and ingrained difference.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
There is more comedy than outrage in this critique of sexual inequality in Iran.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Within this simple structure, Panahi manages at once to celebrate and critique his nation's passions, sexual politics, sporting heritage, laws, morality and class system. It's a fictional feature but, like many Iranian films, it feels uncannily real, particularly in its final rousing minutes.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Along with such colleagues as Abbas Kiarostami and Moshen Makhmalbaf, Panahi has perfected the art of realist filmmaking,
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Women's roles and the eternal fight to expand their rights in Iranian society get a light, hugely entertaining treatment in Jafar Panahi's Offsides.
Read Full Review >Variety Deborah Young
In his most accessible and spontaneous picture, ranking Iranian helmer Jafar Panahi reveals unsuspected comic gifts barely visible in his dramatic festival winners "The White Balloon," "The Circle" and "Crimson Gold."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A charming, character-driven film that conveys enormous feeling for its people
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
While the gist of Offside is the same (as "The Circle"), its tone is more insouciant, as it celebrates the guile and toughness of its heroines while casting a sympathetic glance at the ethical quandaries facing their jailers.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
As the political rhetoric between Washington and Tehran becomes dangerously overheated, Offside offers an intimate antidote: an affectionate glimpse into the cultural schisms that young Tehranis face every day. Western audiences will cheer the rebellious girls on.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson
Although its message is deadly serious, is is filled with wit and winning characters.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The story is good-natured, but Panahi's message is serious: That ludicrous rules turn Iranian women into third-class citizens. And what better way is there to get that point across than through sports and laughter?
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The delicately subversive Mr. Panahi makes his subjects perfectly clear -- the stupidity of authority, and the hypocrisy of discrimination. Offside is surprisingly entertaining, and edifying to boot.
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
There's a commitment to half-improvised, ground-level realism that lends the picture news value and an obvious urgency.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Paul D. gave it a9:
I was amazed at how such a simple story could be so absorbing, entertaining and humorous. Excellent look at the interplay between the stringent Iranian laws regarding women and human factors, including the personalities of the police and the young women.
Troubadorjim gave it a7:
Sure, it wasn't action packed, and the dialog wasn't anything to get excited about , but it definitely hit an emotional chord and made me feel the oppression of Persian women. Offside was a kind of sneak peak into Iran's regime, introducing you to the country's friendly people who, at the end of the day, just want to watch some soccer. I especailly like how Panahi portrayed the male soccer fans as simpathetic to the oppressed females, helping them every chance they got. Not a perfect 10 in my eyes, but definitely worth your time if you're a footie fan or just interested in foreign cinema.
BK gave it a6:
This movie was boring as hell. I've been to Iran many times and I still didn't enjoy it very much even though I managed to watch the whole thing. I got absolutely nothing out of it which is a shame cause I was sort of interested in the topic. Slow, plodding scenes, and ultimately uneventful plot makes NOT recommend this movie at all.
Sean C. gave it a10:
Iranian Islamic regime and other world’s patriarchal societies from Saudi to Afghanistan are placed on notice by this unannounced, unpretentious and unofficial Middle Eastern Women feminist gesture encapsulated in this heartbreaking movie. The film despite its obvious comical propensity, flows through with a deafening tone of casual and yet ominous oppression. In a number of scenes, the movie evokes a helpless feeling mixed with a type of anxiety that one may feel watching Spielberg’s little girl in the red dress running among the ruins at the height of Gestapo’s cleansing in Schindler’s list. Yet the brilliance of these resilient and fearless Iranian women acting as the quintessential unsung heroes escalates into a sensational redeeming factor for their peers and the women from around the world. My compliments to the Mr. Panahi for providing a glimpse of Iranian women reality to the rest of world while in a way bestowing the imaginary title of 21st century Jean dArc’s on these lion heart brave and unstoppable women of Iran.
Andres Z. gave it an8:
An easy stand-out at this past year's New York Film Festival, Jafar Panahi's Offside is simple yet tough, a film who’s unlikely reflexivity is both a reason to praise it and think about. Carefully accumulating and juxtaposing details to form a web of metaphors and meanings, the film chronicles a group of young women who, not allowed to enter sports events due to Iranian law, disguise themselves as boys in order to enter Tehran's Azadi Stadium to watch a World Cup qualifying match.
