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Comment
04/01/06
Head-On (2005)
90 %
Reviews Counted: 78 Fresh: 70 Rotten:8 Average Rating: 7.3/10
Consensus:
A raw, provocative drama about star-crossed love and the lives of immigrants caught between the traditional and modern.
Rated: 18
Runtime: 2 hrs
Theatrical Release: 18-02-2005
Synopsis: Fatih Akin's HEAD-ON (GEGEN DIE WAND) is a powerful film about sexuality and suicide, centering on two Turks living in Germany. Drunken loser Cahit (Birol Unel) drives his car into a wall; Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) slashes her wrists because she can't stand living with her traditional Muslim... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Birol Unel, Sibel Kekilli, Catrin Striebeck, Guven Kyrac, Meltem Cumbul
Reviews
Top Critic
Not easy to watch, the characters are all strongly abrasive, and yet we are emotionally gripped.
02/26/05
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02/19/05
Top Critic
Beyond its pleasures as a good piece of storytelling, Head-On also provides some interesting commentary on the clash between different cultures.
03/01/07
A gloomy fairy-tale version of a Hollywood romantic film that barely gets past its gloomy outlook on life.
10/05/05
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09/26/05
Top Critic
A crash course in raw, visceral film-making . . . riding a gritty story and frenetically alive characters, Head-On is a cinematic rush.
08/09/05
Akin makes this a most intriguing, if roundabout, journey from despair to 'do something.'
07/01/05
Teutonic despair hasn't looked this good since Fassbinder was in business.
06/30/05
...[peppered] with a variety of needlessly self-conscious touches that serve only to distract the viewer from the sporadically intriguing storyline...
06/18/05
not particularly original but it is often riveting enough to hold one’s attention.
06/18/05
The power of Akin's film, which is considerably aided by the two lead performances ... comes from the spectacle of people developing feelings for each other even through numbing layers of mutual narcissism, self-loathing and raging terror of intimacy.
06/17/05
Their performances are the heart of a film that is an often comic and raucous look at mismatched personalities, cultural dissonance, and the tender and tentative sense of optimism that keeps all of us alive for another day.
06/09/05
There is an addictive quality to Akin's bizarre but heartrending film ...
06/04/05
Head-On is not pretty to watch most of the time. But it's pretty hard to forget even a dozen hours after the final credits have rolled.
06/03/05
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