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 situation.

| Mar 21, 2011

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.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 1, 2007

Nolte almost makes it work.

| Original Score: C | Dec 30, 2006

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

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 22, 2006

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.

| Dec 21, 2006

...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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2006

The beauty of this film lies in its sense of promise. All the characters are in crisis, yet no one completely falls apart.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2006

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

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 14, 2006

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'.

Full Review | Dec 8, 2006

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.'

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 8, 2006

As good as Nolte is, the relatively unknown Morgan matches him scene for scene.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 8, 2006

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 8, 2006

Nick Nolte dives beneath the blubber to bare the weary soul of an automobile junkyard operator pushing 60 who also umpires high-school baseball games.

| Dec 7, 2006

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

| Original Score: C+ | Dec 7, 2006

The movie is so restrained, and holds back so much on conventional plot and characterization, that its emotional impact is severely blunted.

| Dec 7, 2006

Writer-director James Ponsoldt filters old-shoe comfort and easy-does-it drollery through what could have been a downbeat inquiry into the ways men of all ages avoid saying what they really feel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 7, 2006

We haven't heard much from Nick Nolte since he took that wild 2002 Hawaiian-shirt mug shot. Off the Black proves he's still a great leading actor.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 6, 2006

Nick Nolte's grizzled, alcoholic recluse mentors Trevor Morgan's unhappy teen in Off the Black, a heartwarming tale that's been told a thousand times before, and with considerably more spark.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 5, 2006

A disarmingly droll and insightful indie.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2006

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.

| Jan 27, 2006