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Off the Black

EMAILPRINTThinkFilm

Off the Black reviews
62
9.2 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: James Ponsoldt

Directed by: James Ponsoldt

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 8, 2006
DVD: April 17, 2007

Running Time: 90 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for a crude sexual remark

Starring Trevor Morgan, Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Sally Kirkland, Sonia Feigelson, and Rosemarie DeWitt

Off the Black is a coming-of-age story of teenager Dave Tibbel (Morgan) who copes with his own distant father (Hutton) by forming an unlikely friendship with a disheveled, irascible high school umpire, Ray Cooke (Nolte). As they grow more dependent on each other, Ray asks Dave to go to his 40th high school reunion and pretend to be his son, a benevolent act of deception that winds up opening unexpected dimensions in the two men. (ThinkFilm)

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...

90

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

Like a good pitcher, Trevor Morgan varies his emotions and perfectly grooves his role as the high-school star. Huffing and puffing, Nolte plops around with brilliant finesse, smartly exposing this frustrated old ballplayer's inside strength and fears.

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83

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirshling

Sucking at the top of many a can, and greedily slurping the sides of an overflowing bottle, Nolte gives a master class in how to drink a beer on screen. The rest of his work here is sad, understated, and worth seeking out.

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75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

As good as Nolte is, the relatively unknown Morgan matches him scene for scene. And he's not the only impressive newcomer. Remarkably, this confident indie is the first feature from writer-director Ponsoldt, who shuns any slickness to embrace the rough edges of his low-budget, bare-bones story.

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75

TV Guide Ken Fox

Writer-director James Ponsoldt's first feature is a small, modest movie structured around a fairly simple situation that leaves plenty of room for some fine performances.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

There's something very right with Off the Black in terms of pure emotion and performance craft.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

There's nothing too small about Nolte's performance. He's the perfect companion for a rookie feature film director looking to make a good first impression.

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75

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Off the Black is a small, dry, emotionally loaded short story that has been carried to film like baked fish to a platter.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Off the Black is a modest, bittersweet character study that hits its mark.

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70

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Off the Black is so much Mr. Nolte’s movie that it couldn’t exist without him. His character is the latest in a long line of Hemingway-esque ruins, marinated in beer and testosterone, who have become Mr. Nolte’s specialty.

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70

Variety Justin Chang

Anchored by a terrific performance from Nick Nolte as a grizzled umpire who gets an unexpected second chance at fatherhood, this easygoing comedy-drama plays out slowly but assuredly, infusing a conventional story about a blossoming relationship with welcome reserves of honesty and humor.

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70

Village Voice Rob Nelson

A disarmingly droll and insightful indie.

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70

Film Threat Eric Campos

It's a touching story of father and son type male bonding -- male bonding with Nick Nolte no less -- that's bound to find some audience members blubbering by film's end.

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63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

I appreciate that Ponsoldt doesn't go for cheap tears through over-sentimentality, but his detached, low-key approach distances viewers from the characters. I watched the drama unfold from afar but was never involved on an emotional level.

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60

LA Weekly Tim Grierson

Off the Black gradually establishes its own peculiar cranky rhythm, fighting to resist the usual male-bonding sentimentality. But despite some nice touches, this is the sort of too-precious indie film that gives its characters unnecessary quirks.

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60

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

I think the movie is so restrained, and holds back so much on conventional plot and characterization, that its emotional impact is severely blunted. Nolte is excellent, I suppose, but we've seen this damaged-American-dude shtick from him before.

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60

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The leads are good, and Timothy Hutton is memorably off-putting as the pitcher's disengaged dad. But having created the aching umpire, Ponsoldt occupies him with some fairly shopworn situations.

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58

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Playing a cantankerous, beer-swigging human wreck of a man for the umpteenth time, Nolte is very good but very familiar.

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50

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Writer-director James Ponsoldt's film treats big subjects -- loneliness, coming-of-age and father-son relationships -- with such half-baked conviction, it's a wonder the screen doesn't redden with embarrassment. Which makes it all the more gratifying to watch Nolte pulverize the dramatic banality around him.

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50

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Nolte almost makes it work.

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25

New York Post Kyle Smith

If your film is as downbeat and deflated as this one, you had better be leading up to a more interesting insight than, "The older I get, the more I know that I don't know anyone."

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Danielle R. gave it a10:
It made me laugh and cry.

Matt gave it a9:
Great movie. Nolte's crazy-brilliant!

Chad S. gave it an8:
A post-it near the beer, in the refrigerator that holds the beer, reminds Ray(Nick Nolte), who is always engaged in full-hangover mode, how he self-imposed on himself a three-beer limit. Our assumption is that he means per-day, but by the looks of this ramshackle umpire, per-hour seems just as likely. "Off the Black" is about an off-the-field friendship between a young man and an ump, fraught with the vaguest sexual tension lurking beneath its father-son dynamic. Ray isn't the Brian Cox character from Michael Cuesta's "L.I.E.", and yet "Off the Black" surprises us with its relevation about the receiver of his homemade movies. And then there's Dave(Trevor Morgan), who reveals himself as having an ambiguous sexual orientation, in a pivotal scene, where he registers not the slightest interest in a girl seated next to him during class(she's pretty enough, and he pays her no mind). But most crucial of all, look closely at Dave as he learns about the buried particulars in Ray's past at the umpire's class reunion. Is Dave hurt? If you want, "Off the Black" can simply be just a heartwarming motion picture about a lonely, old man and his younger charge, who both strike up a symbiotic relationship that is advantageous, yet unethical, as it pertains to the integrity of baseball(ask any fan, it's wrong). But what "Off the Black" really wants to say lies in its gay subtext(that is, if you think it exists), which states(with three snaps in a zig-zag motion): if you don't think there are any gay athletes in sports, think again. When Ray throws Dave out at his home; that their relationship has come to an impasse, he tells his fake boy, "Any father would be proud to have a son like you." This line is either heartbreaking(to Dave if he's gay, and Ray is clueless), or poignant(if Ray knows and loves him like a son anyway). Nolte, looking like he's in a perpetual alcoholic haze, makes gauging the implicit meaning of his complement impossible.

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