CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

83 Alexandra
80 Band's Visit, The
76 Beauty in Trouble
47 Bella
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59 Blind Mountain
55 Bra Boys
60 Brick Lane
70 Caramel
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
83 Chop Shop
83 Chris & Don. A Love Story
78 Counterfeiters, The
52 Diminished Capacity
64 Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
84 Edge of Heaven, The
52 Elsa & Fred
79 Encounters at the End of the World
62 Expired
64 Fall, The
51 Finding Amanda
57 Flawless
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63 Foot Fist Way, The
60 Fugitive Pieces
45 Full Grown Men
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69 Go-Getter, The
74 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63 Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68 Heartbeat Detector
34 Holding Trevor
68 Honeydripper
55 Irina Palm
69 Jellyfish
60 Jihad for Love, A
68 Kabluey
62 Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
82 Last Mistress, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
70 Love Songs
64 Married Life
30 Meet Bill
33 Miss Conception
53 Mister Lonely
74 Mongol
52 Mother of Tears, The
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
84 My Winnipeg
61 On the Rumba River
69 Operation Filmmaker
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
72 Priceless
51 Promotion, The
55 Quid Pro Quo
29 Red Roses and Petrol
79 Reprise
71 Roman de gare
56 Sangre de mi sangre
51 Savage Grace
76 Shotgun Stories
66 Son of Rambow
70 Standard Operating Procedure
62 Stuck
72 Surfwise
81 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
xx Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71 To the Limit
54 Tracey Fragments, The
70 Trumbo
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
56 Unknown Woman
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
62 Wackness, The
37 War, Inc.
64 Water Lilies
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
55 Without the King
72 Woman on the Beach
64 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Head-On
Strand Releasing

Head-On reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 78 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.0 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 19 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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

What The Critics Said

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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
90
Newsweek David Ansen
Akin's raw, powerful, multileveled movie takes us places we never expected to go.
Read Full Review
88
New York Post Debra Birnbaum
An intoxicating, heartbreaking Turkish-German drama that's already won a slew of awards from international film festivals.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
80
Washington Post Desson Thomson
No matter what is going on in the story, these star-crossed lovers are always fascinating to watch.
Read Full Review
80
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Has its share of surprises, especially in the performances of its two main players.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
80
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Vital and affecting romantic drama.
Read Full Review
80
Variety Eddie Cockrell
Fine, gritty, contempo love story.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
80
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Despite the tears, the blood and the booze, Head-On is a hopeful film.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Intense, well-acted love story.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Superbly acted.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Despite all its roiling melodrama, Head-On has its moments of sharply observed humor.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
Sexy and intoxicating.
Read Full Review
70
The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Burns with sincerity and serious intent.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Head-On loses its merry mojo once events turn irrevocable and the action switches from Hamburg to Istanbul.
Read Full Review
67
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Propelled by ferocious sex, nasty violence, and coy interludes of traditional Turkish love songs.
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Unremittingly explosive, Head-On is not an easy film to watch. It is, however, a memorable one.
Read Full Review
60
Empire David Parkinson
Ünel and the debuting Kekilli are as impressive as Akin’s atmospheric snapshots of Hamburg and Istanbul.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Harkanwar A. gave it an8:
Excellent love-sex-hate drama.

Rod E. gave it a4:
Well made; great soundtrack; but about as interesting to watch as rotting meat.

Dieter A. gave it a10:
I saw this movie at Cornell. Audience applauded spontaneously the screen as the credits rolled. A bit strange, can't remember the last time this happened, but if you see the movie you will understand.

Michael K gave it a10:
Fatih Akin has made a film which seems to accurate reflect the pathos of Turkish-German immigrants in their quest for identity compounded with a fear of loss of self. Brilliant. Even better than "Short Sharp Shock." You will be riveted.

Paula W. gave it a10:
This starts out as a quirky "ethnic" romance when Sibel and Cahit meet cute in the hallway of a psychiatric hospital and go on to a highly unconventional marriage. That would be a good movie in itself, what with the contrast between the traditional Turkish musicians who appear in interludes along the Bosporus and the punk-flavored carousing of the main characters in Germany. But then the movie plunges into much deeper waters, and that is what makes it brilliant. Visually pleasing, with splendid acting all around. Highly recommended.

Uli gave it a10:
Simply one of the best films I have seen within the last 12 months! Check it out!

michael z. gave it a10:
Great movie!!!

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: World News | Fantasy Football | Amy Winehouse | Baseball | E3 | Batman | Firefox 3 | iPhone 3G

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use