Off the Black

Name: Off the Black
Genre: Drama
Released: December 8, 2006
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 62
Cast: Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Trevor Morgan

2006

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Ratings

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Off The Black

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Movie Details & Credits

thinkfilm | Release Date: December 8, 2006 | R

Starring: Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Trevor Morgan

Summary: 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,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)… Expand

Director: James Ponsoldt

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 90 min

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Critic Reviews

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. Read full review

Michael Phillips

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

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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." Read full review

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User Reviews

DanielleR.

Dec 11, 2006

It made me laugh and cry.

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Matt

Dec 7, 2006

Great movie. Nolte's crazy-brilliant!

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ChadS.

Apr 18, 2007

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 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.… Expand

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