Head On

Like the main protagonist in this film, I am a "poofter", a "wog", and live in Melbourne. But after seeing it three times (I told you I wanted to like it!) I just have to come to the conclusion that this is yet another film trying really desperately to be oh-so-shocking and harder-core-than-thou. The sex scenes are completely devoid of any passion and are *so* over the top, not to mention *really badly* acted. Also over the top is the excessive drug-taking which I'm convinced was put it solely for shock value. As far as the plotline goes, it's just flat - there is no climax whatsoever, and it just ends (if you can call it an ending) on a completely depressing note. I know a lot of people will say "well, not everything in the garden is rosy", but I'm just sick of seeing violent, aggressive gay films which speak nothing about my life. Only saving grace was the character of Johnny/Toula, brilliantly played by Paul Capsis (and the only hint of camp in the entire film) and the family scenes, which seemed the only thing genuine and truly touching - the only parts I could *really* rel

Heads up to HEADS ON: this is a story of the agonies of isolation self-induced by a tragically sexually confused young man. Few directors have the courage to write and present the truly dark side of sexuality and Ana Kokkinos deserves a tremendous amount of respect for daring to go where this film takes us. Ari (Alex Dimitriades) is a handsome, sensual young Greek man living with his proud parents and sister in Australia. They are part of a Greek conclave that holds to old country traditions: every male must marry a Greek girl and 'then he can do anything he wants' according to Ari's mother. Ari is gay but cannot fully accept his lifestyle, preferring to have dangerous sexual assignations in the filthy alleys of his city. He pals around with Johnny/Toula (Paul Capsis), his transsexual cousin, but avoids contact with him in public. Ari avoids life's realities (he has no job, he is financially dependent on his parents, he cannot relate to his father's demands for his life, etc) through extensive use of drugs and macho confrontations. His life is in a downhill spiral from which he is unable to escape. He attempts a heterosexual encounter but fails miserably. Even when the possibility of a real gay relationship is offered by handsome and masculine Sean (Julian Garner) he is unable to cope and destroys that blink of salvage. Ari's only devotion seems to be to his sister and his mother, neither of whom can extend a long enough arm to pull him from his quicksand life. Ari simply cannot cope with who he truly is. The acting in this fine film is excellent. The camera work by Jaems Grant is both artistically creative and successful in capturing the atmosphere of the story. Scenes that are edgy are handled with realism but never falter into the sensationalism range. Both Alex Demetriades and Paul Capsis give extraordinary portrayals of very tough roles. This is not a film for the squeamish, but it is a fine portrait of gay life in Australia and especially in the Greek community there. Grady Harp

Where do you start with this amateur boring disjointed thing? It looked like it was filmed with an early Nokia phone. Half the camera shots are close ups of Ari (the protagonist). The screen play was the worst part though. It is one of those movies that are so bad they could be humorous. And I am gay! Back to the screen play trite comes to mind-- Australia must be 50 years behind the US (I have heard this by the way) in terms of melting pot stuff. Or some pseudo-intellectual lefty queen thought this the perfect movie script (much more likely). No one in US thinks Italian or Greek or even Latino any more it has all become pretty much main stream. Thank God. That then axes the whole PC gist of the movie...ethnic isolation/discrimination/fitting in--in an "angl#" world. Ari is as another reviewer stated gorgeous...why does he have furtive alley sex with an over weight oriental a scrungy old biker type etc...he could have anyone...this just doesn't fit. This unintelligent screen play attempts to be lefty (shots of protests against Greek colonels) and deep. "I am on the edge of a sewer and smell the shi@" "I am a sailor and a whor$"... I actually laughed at this last line. Written by an unintelligent queen trying to be deep. The writer is also trying to show the edgy dystopia of the gay world...drug driven desperate shadowy degrading back alley sex full of drag queens etc... The real gay world even I imagine in Melbourne is much more mundane and thankfully boringly wholesome. How this thing won any awards etc...?? Again Australia must be 50 years behind the US. Sorry if I insult anybody. DO NOT RECOMMEND

The kettle is on the boil and 19 year old Ari is about to burst with a combination of his culture, sexuality and drug intake, colliding to create a mixed up youth with a cause. His parents migrated to Melbourne, Australia, from Greece and with them they brought their strong culture that they hang onto while back in Greece the culture changes with the times. This we don't see but it is the fact of life for every second generation immigrant who has to fight the ignorance and hypocrisy of their parents and social surroundings. This creates a monster Ari carries on his back, a destructive energy within him that is wasted in back street alleys, public toilets and where ever he can get it. And when people don't come to his side of life, he manipulates them with sexual advances, testing their moral grounds. Through his love of Greek dancing, Ari yearns to keep part of his ancestral culture intact for identity purposes, but with his own freedom of passion. Can the two mix? That's what he's journey is. A journey for self expression without any rules of repression. This is Alex Dimitriades' cake as he eats Ari up and plays the character with conviction. Director Ana gets right into the heart and soul of Ari, via the camera with a confronting script dealing with issues aimed at any migrating culture.

I've just come back from the cinema, and having read the book ('Loaded' by Christos Tsiolkas) and being British/Greek and gay I thought it was excellent. It is a rarity for a start: a very good adaptation of a book, with amazing performances from an all-Greek Australian cast, including the gorgeous Alex Dimitriades himself who, incidentally is straight. I was particularly impressed about the cinematography (I looked it up later - by Jaems Grant and no, it's not a spelling mistake), all moody and dark like the plot. The whole point about the film is encapsulated in the scene where Ari is having oral sex with Sean. He was selfishly roughing up and gagging Sean who had just said that he loved him. It was the ultimate brutalisation of sex by a brutalised closeted youngster in a hopeless, brutalising society. At that moment we wince, as Ari consciously rejects love for the anonymity of the street corner suck-off, but we *do* understand why he is unable to form a relationship: in his own way, he acts according to type, obeying his family's and society's homophobic and racist insults and conventions. Symbolically he looks up from his knees in the end, just as his TV friend Toula pushed him a few scenes before dismissively. The moral of the film as she says is that if you don't stand up for yourself you spend your life on your knees. That moral may perhaps be irrelevant or far gone for gays who have come out and have asserted themselves in society by rejecting the hypocrisy of a double life full of compromises, but it is nevertheless still relevant for a large number of people in many different cultures.

This film about Ari, a handsome, muscular, young Greek man living in Australia is a thoroughly depressing film. Ari lives at home with his parents but has not, and probably never will come out to them. It seems from parts of this movie that in the Greek mind being gay and being a transvestite are almost interchangeable. Given the way that Greek women are treated (at least in this film) it's a wonder that any man would willingly don women's clothes. Ari is into drugs and prefers anonymous, degrading sex. He does meet a non-Greek man who offers him a more romantic existence but the self-loathing and self-destructive tendencies of Ari have stacked the deck against any happy outcome. There are interesting bits and some of the skin scenes are quite erotic but beware this is not intended as a feel good movie.

This movie didn't do anybody who is homosexual any favors. It painted us as being promiscuous perverts who follow people out into back alleys, restrooms, etc. and have anonymous sex with anybody and everybody. I was extremely disappointed, and will never watch this movie again. I certainly hope that not many straight people view this, because it confirms what ignorant, closed minded people think about us without even getting to know us. Sure, I'm not stupid. I know that these things go on, even more often than I'd like. But to make a movie confirming the misconceptions of so many people who, instead of learning that there are a lot of us who are just like everyone else, who don't hang out in bathrooms, who don't follow people out into back alleys, who don't just walk up and get into the car with some stranger and have sex, quite frankly, really makes me angry. However, this is ONLY my opinion, and if anyone loves this movie, more power to them.

The film pretends to portray the the homophobia, hypocrisy and oppression of immigrant communities (represented here by the Greek community in Australia). But the oppression is gratuitous and unwarranted. I am not doubting the realities depicted in the movie, but I am questioning the attitudes of the main characters. Even if people are faced by such circumstances, there is absolutely no reason why their reactions be so passive and submissive other than the inherent homophobia of the film and its makers. There is nothing redeeming about this awful self-hating movie, not even the good looks of its pathetic unlikable lead. I actually felt gratified when he was being beaten and humiliated (so much for a protagonist!)--and it's not only for the nudity (trust me, I like my * more honest!). This film, and "Oxygen", are making me lose my faith in gay Greek cinema: self-indulgent, gratuitously melodramatic, AND unapologetically self-loathing. Next!

Was this supposed to be a realistic film? The main character goes around having sex with every single walking being he sees. Now, would one be able to carry so much horniness after doing all the existing drugs in a space of 24 hours? I don't think so. And then again, what's with the character doing e, heroine, joints, coke, speed, all in one day?!? This film is absurd, cliché and it shows what people want to see - gay people being libertine and junkies. On top of this the filming itself doesn't help much. There isn't anything I hate more in film then hand-held cameras (von trier seems to be one of the only people who can do that without being pretentious). It makes the whole process self-conscious and you just know too easily the message the director wants to pass. Bad, bad, bad.

I'm not sure why everyone goes crazy over this film. Like "Only the Brave", this is just another collection of "controversial" topics - lined up next to each other to make a film. You can almost hear the conversations at script meetings: "Oh, hang on! We haven't said anything about child abuse, yet!" Unfortunately, the film fails to say anything about anything. Tsiolkas' novel was a bold and fresh work, but this adaptation proves that some books simply can not be filmed. The problems lie in the fact that it's a very internalised novel. And it's a little easier to have a protagonist in a novel who is not a very nice person. Dimitriades is a standout, but he is not given the motivation to work with. The sex club scenes are cliched and silly (My what great looking guys! They look like they've just stepped out of the modeling agency). Alex Papps and Maya Stange were wasted and it's a shame to see two amazing talents like them playing second banana to Julian Garner. So promising... but it just didn't deliver.