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Wed. Feb 14th after 5pm
$27.” a couple includes
A Bottle Of Champagne
& Choke of Two Entrees:
• Black & Bleu Salman
• Sirloin Steak (6 oz.)
• Chicken Breast
35 rd. • beechwood center
706-354-6655
CHARMING FIRST PITCH
OFF THE BLACK (R) With its local connections,
a film like James Ponsoldt's Off the Black intimi
dates me. Rip off a bad review and how many
of Ponsoldt's friends and family are going to
deluge the Flagpole with angry polemics about
my pretentiousness/ arrogance/ intellect (or lack
thereof)/ mother? Polish off a shining explication
of the beautiful wonder that is Off the Black, and
I'm just another deejay taking payola under the
table. I haven't even begun to discuss the frus
trated filmmaker, resembling an angry David the
Gnome, who resides deep in my gut. That little
fellow's always good for a jealous evisceration of
someone else's hard work that I could have done
better, of course. Considering the inner turmoil
of my psychological state as I ventured into a
Friday afternoon screening of Ponsoldt's film, my
genuine captivation with and unbegrudged admi
ration for Off the Black only reinforces my belief
that it's one of the most steadily compelling
independent features I've seen in the near three
years I've hacked away at this gig.
degenerate into the forced laughs of a sitcom
in the hands of a lesser humanist. (I can only
imagine the hilarity of the never-produced epi
sode of "Mr. Belvedere" where the portly, prissy
butler takes hellion Wesley to whatever stuffy
British school the former royal worker attended.)
Ponsoldt's screenplay is far from perfect. Who
diabetic, single mother Debra (Rosemarie DeWitt,
"Standoff”) is and how she is connected to Ray
never emerges from the haze of inessentiality.
I was just pleased that she never became the
film's Y tu mama tambien temptress. Also, Dave's
mothering little sister never emerges from her
pubescent characterless cocoon, partly due to
Sonia Feigelson's uneven performance.
None of Ponsoldt's slight missteps can tarnish
the film's overall gleam. Morgan and Nolte gener
ate a pleasantly electric mentor-mentee chem
istry. Both are on-screen for several extended
takes—an indie trope I prefer to Hollywood's
quick cutting—engaging in little more than
still deliberation. Nolte has long been one of
22 . FLAGPOLE.COM • FEBRUARY 7,2007
Trevor Morgan and Nick Nolte
NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS ! MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS
In no small way am I a true believer in the
perfection of indie cinema. Most of the films that
fall into this category utter the same ponder
ous life lessons/ character quirks in perfectly
matching cinematic drawls. But when done well,
the pensive, empty cutaways of clear blue skies
pierced by intrusive smokestacks and aboveg
round swimming pools provide moments of
silence necessary to tidy the mind after life flut
ters a knuckleball across the plate for strike two.
With the amateurishness of reality. Off the
Black meanders through two small-town lives
forever changed by a close call made behind
the plate of - high school baseball game. Cedar
Springs pitcher Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan,
Jurassic Park III) had thrown a heck of a game
when he walks in the winning run, according to
umpire Ray Cook (two-time Academy Award nom
inee Nick Nolte; talk about a casting coup). Dave
and his dumbass friends/ teammates decide to
teach Cook, who lives alone with his beer-drink
ing dog (fortunately, Ponsoldt never relies on
the peculiar hermit crutch for too much dramatic
support), a lesson by vandalizing his home. After
being caught, nice-guy Dave slowly befriends the
unsurprisingly unhappy alcoholic, an unsteady
but physically present replacement for his emo
tionally crippled photographer father (Academy
Award winner Timothy Hutton). Dave's need for
a stand-in father is only matched by Ray's desire
for a pseudo-son to accompany him to his 40th
high school reunion, an event at which the dying
man (did I forgot to mention Ray's terminal ill
ness?) sorely wishes to impress.
The directionless Off the Blacks sudden
beeline for due dramatic north—Dave and Ray
attending the reunion as father and son—would
America's finest actors, though his career has
taken an interesting turn since his surprising
1997 Oscar loss to Roberto Benigni. Nolte's ap
peared in 18 films since Affliction, but his only
role in a major film was 2003's Hulk. Since, the
gruff performer, his blonde mane as constantly
unkempt as in his infamous mug shot, has been
off perfecting his reluctant adviser in small films
like The Peaceful Warrior before emerging in Off
the Black as the loving, real and flawed curmud
geon, the likable grouch videotaping his sad life
for an undemonstrative audience. Morgan nearly
matches Nolte point for point and owns some
winning moments as well. His bemused guilt at
meeting Ray's hospitalized father keeps the scene
from coagulating, and his earnest execution as
Ray's son guarantees the gambit's rising above
its potential for blundering misunderstanding.
Ponsoldt pulls off a pretty impressive trick
in his first feature. He crafts a personal, unob
trusive study of the fragile, transferable ties of
family whose foot never gets mangled by the in
dependent bear traps of gratuitous eccentricities,
seedy twists and sordid subplots. Off the Black
wears its gaps of story and hefty silences with
the panache of a film twice its budget, thanks
to Ponsoldt and his collaborators in front of and
behind the camera.
The film looks, feels, and moves exactly like
any number of its indie cohorts, but Black con
fidently engages the audience's mind in both
working and playing with a down-to-earth ren
dering of small-town life. Off the Black may not
be the perfect pitch, but it's close enough to the
black to warrant a swing.
Drew Wheeler
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