A fascinating documentary, thanks to McCollum's personality and presence, but the strength of the doc is how it exposes the flaws in the system.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 16, 2021

There's triumph amidst the pathos here, and it's frustrating to try and figure out how Darius' life could have been filled with more of those victories.

| Aug 28, 2018

Irving tackles the difficult subjects of mental illness, criminal behaviour, trauma, and a revolving door justice system with strength and dexterity.

| Original Score: 4.7/5 | Aug 28, 2018

Off the Rails succeeds in giving us a glimpse into a mind too easily labeled as "troubled" or "different" and paints Darius as a sympathetic figure following a passion.

| Jun 26, 2018

Writer-director Adam Irving and writer Tchavdar Georgiev, provide a comprehensive, bittersweet portrait of a man who is a round peg that society keeps trying to force into a square hole.

| Original Score: B | Feb 7, 2017

In addition to being a character study of a tragic figure, Off the Rails is an indictment of a justice system that hasn't been on the rails for a long time, if ever.

| Dec 22, 2016

[Off the Rails has] such a charismatic protagonist and such an interesting conundrum at its core.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 20, 2016

In a notable directorial debut, Adam Irving's Off the Rails shakes the salacious overtones that have dominated coverage of McCollum for decades.

| Dec 8, 2016

A bittersweet documentary about a man who lived to drive subway trains and buses under false identity, the kind of work real employees regard as oppressive.

| Nov 28, 2016

If nothing else, Off the Rails, which includes a few too many reenactments for my taste, does what many good documentaries do. It provides us with a window into the psyche of a person worth caring about.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 18, 2016

An assured and thoughtful debut.

| Nov 17, 2016

A compelling documentary with a fascinating, heartbreaking story.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 16, 2016

Watching this film stirs a mix of delight in the depth of McCollum's train fascination and pity for how neglected he's been by a system not built to recognize that the root of his crimes is not simply criminal impulse.

| Nov 16, 2016

Though the film eventually grows as repetitious as its subject's habit, this odd tale has an undeniable bizarro human-interest fascination.

| Nov 11, 2016

Off The Rails uses interviews, animation and dramatic reconstructions to tell McCollum's strange story but these devices are never flashy or distracting.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 4, 2016

[An] excellent documentary ...

| Nov 3, 2016

A Must See

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 3, 2016

Irving offers a mostly sympathetic portrayal of his subject, interspersing interviews with cute animations of McCollum as a kind of MTA Superman, and highlighting the inability of the U.S. justice system to deal with such eccentric criminals.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 1, 2016

While we fret over a situation offering no easy solutions, Irving alternates between colorful anecdotes from McCollum's illicit career and examples of the way the courts have failed him.

| Nov 1, 2016

Rather than the liar the state paints him to be, Darius proves a troubled soul who the system transformed into an unwitting example.

| Original Score: B- | Oct 10, 2016