Why bother comparing a delicate yet trenchant social allegory about young Iranian female soccer fans with a massive, dunderheaded "epic" about ancient Sparta warding off legions of evil Persians tinted with all the lovely colors of an oil slick? Well, not only does Offside's very contemporary look at Iranian youth culture act as a nuanced corrective to Zack Snyder's conveniently "unintentional" Iran invasion propaganda (Iran was known before the mid-Thirties as, you guessed it, Persia) but also both films are literal calls to action -- Offside for young women to assert their independence in a hideously patriarchal society that's ever so slowly evolving due to burgeoning youth activism; 300 for Americans to stomp, slice, and hack their way through anything, or anybody, of a different color. The choice should be simple.
Click here to read all of Michael Koresky's review of Jafar Panahi's Offside, which we've certainly been encouraging that you go see for long enough. Finally, your chance is here.
