Head-On
Metascore
78 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
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  1. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    100
    Not about crashing into walls or crashing into other people. It's about crashing into yourself and living to tell the tale.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    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.
  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    90
    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.
  4. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    90
    Akin's raw, powerful, multileveled movie takes us places we never expected to go.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    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.
  6. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Debra Birnbaum
    88
    An intoxicating, heartbreaking Turkish-German drama that's already won a slew of awards from international film festivals.
  7. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    88
    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.
  8. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    80
    Vital and affecting romantic drama.
  9. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    80
    A romantic comedy with jagged edges, Fatih Akin's exhilarating Head-On paves the road to love through miles of prickly thatch.
  10. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Melissa Levine
    80
    A solid, well-crafted drama, with a tight script, sharp editing, and strong performances by the leads. Beware, however: This is no comedy.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    80
    Despite the tears, the blood and the booze, Head-On is a hopeful film.
  12. Variety
    Reviewed by: Eddie Cockrell
    80
    Fine, gritty, contempo love story.
  13. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    Fatih Akin is a filmmaker to be reckoned with. His characters grow and change in a stunning film that pulses with life.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    No matter what is going on in the story, these star-crossed lovers are always fascinating to watch.
  15. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    80
    Has its share of surprises, especially in the performances of its two main players.
  16. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    80
    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.
  17. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    78
    But for all the film's griminess and doom, bad behavior and bad luck, it's hope that engines Head-On.
  18. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    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.
  19. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Superbly acted.
  20. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    What ensues is a love story ringed by barbed wire and etched in blood with the jagged neck of a broken beer bottle.
  21. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    Despite all its roiling melodrama, Head-On has its moments of sharply observed humor.
  22. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    75
    Sexy and intoxicating.
  23. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    75
    Violent and sexy and funny and sad, Head-On is a big collision that doubles as a bizarre love story.
  24. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    75
    Intense, well-acted love story.
  25. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    75
    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.
  26. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    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.
  27. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    Head-On loses its merry mojo once events turn irrevocable and the action switches from Hamburg to Istanbul.
  28. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    Head-On doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but it keeps you on edge, laughing nervously, appalled and, against all odds, entertained.
  29. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    70
    Burns with sincerity and serious intent.
  30. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Chris Fujiwara
    70
    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.
  31. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    Propelled by ferocious sex, nasty violence, and coy interludes of traditional Turkish love songs.
  32. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    Unremittingly explosive, Head-On is not an easy film to watch. It is, however, a memorable one.
  33. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    60
    Ünel and the debuting Kekilli are as impressive as Akin’s atmospheric snapshots of Hamburg and Istanbul.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
9.0 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 27 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Diezmartinez
    10
    Un inclasificable melodrama sobre un turco, un vago sin oficio ni beneficio, que se casa con una desequilibrada y suicida mujer turca, con el fin de que ella gane su independencia y abandone el conservador hogar familiar. Ambientada en Alemania y con un seco desenlace en Estambul, Contra la Pared inicia como comedia de enredos, tiene ribetes de comedia romántica y continúa con una brutal serie de acontecimientos, tan sorpresivos como desarmantes en su cruda realidad… Full Review »
  2. FrankO
    9
    This is a strange film but I love movies that are off-beat, off kilter a bit. Akin does a great job of creating sympathetic characters but I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. I like being the observer in this film, watching Cahit and Sibel learn to be with each other, with all its pluses and minuses. Not a film just for anyone.… Full Review »
  3. HarkanwarA.
    8
    Excellent love-sex-hate drama.
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