Head On

Rating:
Summary: Head On is In Your Face
Review: There are three things I look for on a DVD, whatever its full complement of Extra Features turns out to be: widescreen format, the theatrical trailor, and director's (or anyone else's) commentary. Unfortunately there is no director's commentary on this one (typical of STRANDRELEASING releases) but you do get the trailer and widescreen. The film itself is an in-your-face presentation of casual sex, heavy drug use and rebel-without-a-cause or too-many-causes-to-name. If you can withstand the onslaught, the reward is a main performance by Alex Dimitriades as Ari that is pure dynamite. Seldom is there so much beauty, talent and charisma contained in one person. The supporting performances are all good, including one by the most annoying (to this viewer) character of any film, a drag queen named Johnny who insists Ari be not who he is but who Johnny wants him to be. In fact, this is the underlying theme throughout the film, that everyone has a prescription for Ari, including the college-dude who lusts after him. Overall, beware, for whenever Johnny makes an appearance in the film, it is definitely "Oh-oh" time.

Rating:
Summary: This movie was terrible!
Review: This film is horrendous. Do not waste your time and money.

Rating:
Summary: a great film
Review: This is afilm that even if your not gay or bi you can relate.The main character ari is searching for his own identity and needs something in his life,which causes him to do things he might reget. This film is finely acting and the main character is so good looking,you wonder how his life could of ended up like this.But it is something we all can relate in someway,its definitly worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This movie is a story about a boy named Ari who is Greek, gay, and [messed] up. I thought the acting in this film is very well done and the plot is very involving. I felt bad for Ari towards the end of the movie because the guy he's fallen in love with is a total jerk. The guy knows Ari is high out of his mind so he takes him to his apartment to have sex with him. Then he gets angry when Ari goes out of control. The ending to this movie really leaves you guessing what path Ari will take next. I'd like to see a follow up to this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Sad but Worth a Watch!
Review: This movie, about a young Greek man in Australia. He likes to party, everybody thinks he is straight, doesn't have a lot of responsibility and has lots of annonomous encounters with sometimes surprisingly unattractive people in back streets. The part I found sad was that he seems very lost about where his life was going, and when he finally meets somebody he might work out with he starts to fall back on his old behavior. A movie worth watching, the star is very good and not the body waxed clones you see in most of the mags but a handsome although real looking guy.

Rating:
Summary: Meaningful and heavy.
Review: This was an enjoyable film. I felt it was rather heavy and dark. It was a boarderline COMING OUT story with a SELF HATE angle and a DO NOT TRY TO LOVE ME twist. A little funny and a lot sad. The actors did an excellant job on the roles and the film quality was good.
I suggest adding it to your collection if you enjoy drama with a sexy, dark feel.

Rating:
Summary: One gay man's odyssey
Review: To paraphrase Altman's "The Player," this movie is "Saturday Night Fever" meets "Taxi zum klo." It has all the virtues and shortcomings of many Independent films--the writing is earnest but muddled and the film is ultimately saved by its beguiling star and highly competent supporting cast. Alex Dimitriades has no bad angles. The camera loves him. If anything, his "normal" good looks work against his characterization. It never really becomes clear why this young man who seems to have so much going for him is so messed up. He doesn't seem like such a shunned outsider (he's Greek living in Australia). Are his addictions (to drugs and anonymous sex) the cause of his aimlessness and alienation, or the result of it? The tension between him and his father is more explicable (the hard-working immigrant parent wants his nightclubbing son to get a job), but not insurmountable. For me, one of the most compelling scenes is when the father walks in on his wife, son, and daughter dancing together in the living room to an Australian pop song. He goes to the phonogaph and puts on a Greek instrumental record. Reluctantly, the son joins his father in some Zorba-like dancing. Both move very sensually and the connection between father and son is imbued with more affection and tenderness that the son ever experiences with any of his many one night stands. But the experience is just as fleeting. The two men just don't understand one another. But this relationship, like all of the others in the film, is never really explored or explained. To enjoy "Head On" it's best to just experience it as an odyssey and not expect any major insights into the human condition. And, of course, there's Alex Dimitriades and all those good angles

Rating:
Summary: One gay man's odyssey
Review: To paraphrase Altman's "The Player," this movie is "Saturday Night Fever" meets "Taxi zum klo." It has all the virtues and shortcomings of many Independent films--the writing is earnest but muddled and the film is ultimately saved by its beguiling star and highly competent supporting cast. Alex Dimitriades has no bad angles. The camera loves him. If anything, his "normal" good looks work against his characterization. It never really becomes clear why this young man who seems to have so much going for him is so messed up. He doesn't seem like such a shunned outsider (he's Greek living in Australia). Are his addictions (to drugs and anonymous sex) the cause of his aimlessness and alienation, or the result of it? The tension between him and his father is more explicable (the hard-working immigrant parent wants his nightclubbing son to get a job), but not insurmountable. For me, one of the most compelling scenes is when the father walks in on his wife, son, and daughter dancing together in the living room to an Australian pop song. He goes to the phonogaph and puts on a Greek instrumental record. Reluctantly, the son joins his father in some Zorba-like dancing. Both move very sensually and the connection between father and son is imbued with more affection and tenderness that the son ever experiences with any of his many one night stands. But the experience is just as fleeting. The two men just don't understand one another. But this relationship, like all of the others in the film, is never really explored or explained. To enjoy "Head On" it's best to just experience it as an odyssey and not expect any major insights into the human condition. And, of course, there's Alex Dimitriades and all those good angles

Rating:
Summary: I LIKED IT SO I BOUGHT ONE FOR MY COLLECTION
Review: What a great leading actor: Alex Dimitriades, I think he's cute for this role and he is a beautiful guy. Is there anymore movie like this that he did after this one? I first saw this movie in HBO and I've been watching it again and again after I got my own copy. The story is good but I like looking at the lead actor. The five stars are for him!

Rating:
Summary: Australian Beauty
Review: When Australia tackle a movie subject such as homesexuality they either totally miss the plot, as in "The Sum of Us" or make a film that sets the benchmark for all others to follow.
Head On falls into the later.Alex Dimitraides performance is brilliant as the Young Gay son of Greek imigrants that cannot accept his place in modern Australian society as a gay man.
His rejection of his own sexuality leads to his sexual gratification without emotion,the end result being that he misses a chance of a meaningful or at least caring relationship.
A comment made by the director in thanking Alex for his performance was "he gave every inch of himself to the role"
A challenging, disturbing but brilliant film from Australia