|

Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
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

34
10,000 B.C.
55
Baby Mama
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
36
College Road Trip
xx
Dark Knight, The
31
Deception
41
Drillbit Taylor
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
54
Get Smart
49
Hancock
34
Happening, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
xx
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
71
Horton Hears a Who!
61
Incredible Hulk, The
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
79
Iron Man
35
Jumper
73
Kung Fu Panda
24
Love Guru, The
37
Made of Honor
xx
Mamma Mia!
58
Mist, The
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
55
Nim's Island
22
Postal
69
Redbelt
44
Ruins, The
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
76
Shine a Light
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
61
Stop Loss
47
Strangers, The
55
Street Kings
33
Superhero Movie
93
WALL-E
64
Wanted
36
What Happens in Vegas...
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
93
WALL-E
79
Iron Man
76
Shine a Light
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Horton Hears a Who!
69
Redbelt
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
61
Stop Loss
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
Mist, The
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
Ruins, The
41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
36
College Road Trip
36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
xx
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
xx
Dark Knight, The
xx
Mamma Mia!
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
84
My Winnipeg
84
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Chop Shop
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
82
Last Mistress, The
81
Tell No One
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Reprise
79
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
76
Shotgun Stories
75
Young@Heart
74
Mongol
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Surfwise
71
To the Limit
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Roman de gare
70
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Trumbo
70
Love Songs
70
Caramel
69
Go-Getter, The
69
Operation Filmmaker
69
Jellyfish
68
Kabluey
68
Heartbeat Detector
68
Honeydripper
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
66
Son of Rambow
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Married Life
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
64
XXY
64
Water Lilies
64
Fall, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Stuck
62
Expired
62
Wackness, The
62
Kiss the Bride
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
On the Rumba River
60
Fugitive Pieces
60
Brick Lane
60
Jihad for Love, A
59
Blind Mountain
57
Flawless
56
Unknown Woman
56
Then She Found Me
56
Sangre de mi sangre
55
Quid Pro Quo
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
55
Irina Palm
55
Bra Boys
55
Without the King
54
Tracey Fragments, The
53
Mister Lonely
52
Diminished Capacity
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Finding Amanda
51
Promotion, The
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Bella
45
Full Grown Men
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
37
War, Inc.
34
Holding Trevor
33
Miss Conception
30
Meet Bill
29
Red Roses and Petrol
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
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 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|