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Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Jafar Panahi of Iran is one of his country's great filmmakers, and Offside is his best movie to date. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The delicately subversive [director] Mr. Panahi makes his subjects perfectly clear -- the stupidity of authority, and the hypocrisy of discrimination. Offside is surprisingly entertaining, and edifying to boot. Read more
Noel Murray, AV Club: It's a sports film unlike any other, and a political film that makes the personal profound. Read more
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Humanizes the Iranians and shows that they're just as crazy about their sports as Westerners, if not more. If anything, it proves that soccer is truly an international language, providing an arena where anyone can communicate. Read more
Janice Page, Boston Globe: As funny as it is sharp. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The great virtue of Offside is that it never degenerates into an us-versus-them situation. [Director Pahani] understands that a repressive system victimizes the oppressors as much as the oppressed. Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The director shoots largely on location -- parts were filmed at Azadi Stadium during an actual match -- and mixes fiction and documentary so deftly we can't tell which is which. Read more
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Offside is a slow slog through bloated scenes with little happening. Framed and shot like a crude documentary, it proceeds in long, clunky takes, as if an editor couldn't be bothered. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The interaction between soldiers and captives becomes a microcosm for an entire culture. It's a wisp of a movie but it has stayed with me longer than much supposedly weightier fare. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: [A] wonderfully funny, outspoken shaggy-dog story. Read more
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: The rare Iranian film that is not only thoughtful and thought-provoking but also a lot of fun. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: For all its implicit politics, Offside is a pure joy; the young women are feisty and lovable. One can even imagine a few imams chuckling through their beards. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Obviously there's more than soccer at stake here, with the field standing for the world of ideas itself. How do we dare keep any group from entering? How will we ever succeed at keeping them out? We don't, says this film, and we can't. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Director Jafar Panahi has long been an eloquent and passionate representative for Iranian women. But judging by this deeply poignant comedy, they may not need a mouthpiece much longer. Read more
V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The story is good-natured, but Panahi's message is serious: That ludicrous rules turn Iranian women into third-class citizens. And what better way is there to get that point across than through sports and laughter? Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Exhilarating, exuberant and drolly funny. Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: There's a commitment to half-improvised, ground-level realism that lends the picture news value and an obvious urgency. Read more
G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: Although its message is deadly serious, Offside is almost lighthearted, filled with wit and winning characters. Read more
Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: Most of this winning drama shows [girls] bantering with their male keepers, boyish soldiers who don't want to miss the game themselves. Over the crowd's roar, they argue about Islamic prohibitions and the statistics of star players. Read more
Susan Walker, Toronto Star: Offside is shocking in its revelation of the legal oppression of women in Iran. This film is also hugely funny. Read more
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Offside may be the ultimate Iranian film: It's both an advance for its director, moving away from his slight political didacticism, and a perfect metaphor for a population that's more liberated than its stone-age sexism would imply. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Panahi has things both ways -- his movie is critical and utopian, cinema verite and political allegory. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: [Director] Panahi has perfected the art of realist filmmaking, here turning his camera on scenes that seem more improvised or captured on the fly than staged. Read more