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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
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91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
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74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Head-On
Strand Releasing
FILM:
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Birol Ünel,
Sibel Kekilli,
Catrin Striebeck,
Güven Kirac,
Meltem Cumbul,
Zarah McKenzie,
Stefan Gebelhoff,
and
Francesco Fiannaca
A marriage of convenience in Hamburg between two troubled Turks changes both their lives in this fine, gritty, contemporary love story. Director Fatih Akin dives deep into Turkish culture and explores the slippery slope of identity and cultural pride faced by Turks who either move to or are born in Germany. (Strand Releasing)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Fatih Akin
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Fatih Akin
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: September 13, 2005
Theatrical: January 21, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
121 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Germany / Turkey |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
German / Turkish / English (with English subtitles) |
Original title "Gegen die Wand"; Also known as "Head On"; Golden Berlin Bear and FIPRESCI Prize, 2004 Berlin International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Impeccably made, uncompromising in its implacable vision of the deranging power of love, sex and controlled substances, this savage and staggering film knows how to take our breath away.

100
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Not about crashing into walls or crashing into other people. It's about crashing into yourself and living to tell the tale.

90
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
In its breathlessly claustrophobic way the movie is vital and passionate, and lit with a lyric beauty that washes over love scenes and violent acts alike.

90
Newsweek
David Ansen
Akin's raw, powerful, multileveled movie takes us places we never expected to go.

88
New York Post
Debra Birnbaum
An intoxicating, heartbreaking Turkish-German drama that's already won a slew of awards from international film festivals.

88
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The love that heals and the love that kills are one and the same in the exhilarating Head-On, Fatih Akin's overgrown dead-end-kid romance for live-wire adults.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's a brutally convincing movie about two hell-bent young Turkish-German lovers dancing on the edge of destruction in a Hamburg underworld of drugs and casual sex. Yet it's also compassionate and even tender.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
No matter what is going on in the story, these star-crossed lovers are always fascinating to watch.

80
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Has its share of surprises, especially in the performances of its two main players.

80
Dallas Observer
Melissa Levine
A solid, well-crafted drama, with a tight script, sharp editing, and strong performances by the leads. Beware, however: This is no comedy.

80
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
This is not just pliable filmmaking; it is an exercise in worldliness, in a feel for the cracks and warps of circumstance, which is all the more startling when you learn that the director is thirty-one.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Fatih Akin is a filmmaker to be reckoned with. His characters grow and change in a stunning film that pulses with life.

80
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Vital and affecting romantic drama.

80
Variety
Eddie Cockrell
Fine, gritty, contempo love story.

80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
A romantic comedy with jagged edges, Fatih Akin's exhilarating Head-On paves the road to love through miles of prickly thatch.

80
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
Despite the tears, the blood and the booze, Head-On is a hopeful film.

78
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
But for all the film's griminess and doom, bad behavior and bad luck, it's hope that engines Head-On.

75
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Intense, well-acted love story.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Violent and sexy and funny and sad, Head-On is a big collision that doubles as a bizarre love story.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The movie is well and fearlessly acted, and the writer-director (Fatih Akin) is determined to follow her story to a logical and believable conclusion, rather than letting everyone off the hook with a conventional ending.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
What ensues is a love story ringed by barbed wire and etched in blood with the jagged neck of a broken beer bottle.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Winner of the top prize at the last Berlin Film Festival, the film is sporadically powerful, sensitively acted and full of music, used with imagination and flair.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Superbly acted.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Despite all its roiling melodrama, Head-On has its moments of sharply observed humor.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
Sexy and intoxicating.

70
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Burns with sincerity and serious intent.

70
Slate
David Edelstein
Head-On doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but it keeps you on edge, laughing nervously, appalled and, against all odds, entertained.

70
Chicago Reader
Chris Fujiwara
Director Faith Akin has skill and panache, and the lead actors are likable. But the film's high energy can't compensate for the muddled conception.

70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Fatih Akin's surprisingly grisly feature spills more blood than both of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films combined, which is strange when you consider that it's a love story.

70
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Head-On loses its merry mojo once events turn irrevocable and the action switches from Hamburg to Istanbul.

67
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Propelled by ferocious sex, nasty violence, and coy interludes of traditional Turkish love songs.

63
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Unremittingly explosive, Head-On is not an easy film to watch. It is, however, a memorable one.

60
Empire
David Parkinson
Ünel and the debuting Kekilli are as impressive as Akin’s atmospheric snapshots of Hamburg and Istanbul.


The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
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