Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

So accessible and entertaining.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

Jafar Panahi of Iran is one of his country's great filmmakers, and Offside is his best movie to date.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

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.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Jafar Panahi's wonderfully funny, outspoken shaggy-dog story, a light counterweight to his sadder 2000 feminist drama "The Circle."

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

It's a sports film unlike any other, and a political film that makes the personal profound.

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

Offside is blatantly metaphoric and powerfully concrete, deceptively simple and highly sophisticated in its formal intelligence.

Austin Chronicle by Marrit Ingman

This is Iranian cinema at its most accessible: a bit slow even in its 92 minutes, with more environment than story, but deeply immersive and thought-provoking, and quite often funny.

Premiere by Glenn Kenny

The masterly Panahi concocts a spellbinding, often corrosively and/or warmly funny story in which love of both country and sport tries to, but doesn't quite, transcend dogmatic and ingrained difference.

New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman

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.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Poignant and sometimes downright hilarious, much of the film unfolds in the small area outside the arena -- an "offside" penalty box for women who just won't behave.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

While the gist of Offside is the same (as "The Circle"), its tone is more insouciant, as it celebrates the guile and toughness of its heroines while casting a sympathetic glance at the ethical quandaries facing their jailers.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

A charming, character-driven film that conveys enormous feeling for its people

Variety by Deborah Young

In his most accessible and spontaneous picture, ranking Iranian helmer Jafar Panahi reveals unsuspected comic gifts barely visible in his dramatic festival winners "The White Balloon," "The Circle" and "Crimson Gold."

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

Women's roles and the eternal fight to expand their rights in Iranian society get a light, hugely entertaining treatment in Jafar Panahi's Offsides.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

The delicately subversive Mr. Panahi makes his subjects perfectly clear -- the stupidity of authority, and the hypocrisy of discrimination. Offside is surprisingly entertaining, and edifying to boot.

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

There's a commitment to half-improvised, ground-level realism that lends the picture news value and an obvious urgency.