Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 41
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 14
Nick Nolte shines in his role as an irascible high school umpire, imbuing this indie coming-of-age dramedy with heft and true-to-life warmth.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 5
Nick Nolte shines in his role as an irascible high school umpire, imbuing this indie coming-of-age dramedy with heft and true-to-life warmth.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
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When the growing divide between a troubled teen and his emotionally distant father finds the boy seeking the friendship of a disheveled and temperamental high-school umpire, the bond shared between the unlikely pair leads both to realize things about themselves that they never knew in an affecting coming-of-age tale starring Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Trevor Morgan, and Sally Kirkland. Ray Cook (Nolte) is a gruff, hard-drinking ump whose questionable call has recently cost a high-school
Dec 8, 2006 Wide
Apr 17, 2007
ThinkFilm
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (14) | DVD (2)
A modest drama fueled by Nick Nolte's gutsy lead performance as a disheveled 57-year-old junkyard proprietor who's been as flattened by life as the rusty old cars he crushes.
Off the Black is a small, dry, emotionally loaded short story that has been carried to film like baked fish to a platter.
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.
...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.
The beauty of this film lies in its sense of promise. All the characters are in crisis, yet no one completely falls apart.
There's something very right with Off the Black in terms of pure emotion and performance craft.
Nolte is a flawed mentor in uncertain indie drama.
To put it plainly, most of Off the Black is simply terrible.
Ponsoldt's debut is full of quiet heartache, and effectively establishes a consistent melancholy tone. And Nolte is exceptional.
Just a simple little "people drama," nothing more, but a very well-crafted and heartfelt one all the same.
"Off the Black" is writer/director James Ponsoldt's first movie...When I found out how young Ponsoldt is, only twenty-six, I was shocked that someone so young could have such insight into, and such empathy for, the existential disquietude of middle age.
The material is awfully familiar, and first-time director James Ponsoldt paces the entire 90 minutes so slowly that you might think he's talking about chess rather than baseball.
Just 'off the black' is a baseball term for a pitch that's a fraction off from being a really good strike. Same here, this movie is just a fraction off from being a really good film.
OFF THE BLACK is a small picture that might get lost amidall the holiday hoopla and Oscar-bait fare that is clogging the cineplexes. It's worth seeking out; those who do will find a sweet but not saccharine story.
Nolte almost makes it work.
[S]mart, bone-dry, but ultimately distant indie...
Throughout the film, there is a sense that the actors know a lot about these characters and that they believe in them. The result is a movie that we believe in, no matter where it goes.
Tells a familiar story, but does it well enough to merit a passing grade.
Despite some nice touches, this is the sort of too-precious indie film that gives its characters unnecessary quirks (like diabetes) to make them more 'real'.
Cast: Nick Nolte, Trevor Morgan, Marlyne Afflack, Timothy Hutton, Rosemarie DeWitt, Noah Fleiss, Sally Kirkland Director: James Ponsoldt Summary: An unlikely bond forms between high school baseball pitcher Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan) and reclusive, ailing umpire Ray Cook (Nick Nolte) after Ray catches the youngster
July 27, 2010
Super Reviewer
"Off the Black" starts with Dave(Trevor Morgan) walking in the winning run in a high school baseball game umpired by Ray(Nick Nolte), a 57-year old who works at a junkyard and lives with his bulldog. That night, Dave and two of his friends vandalize and toiletpaper Ray's house but Ray catches Dave in the act while his
January 4, 2008Super Reviewer
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