Nice effects though.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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.

I don't consider this a very good film in the conventional sense, but it is certainly provocative and memorable. (Apparently it was not well received by the Greek-Aussie community, and the star of the film did not become a star). Note: Don't confuse this with a film by a Turkish-German director, Head-On (2004), also good but very different. Back to Aussie film: My judgment is undoubtedly clouded by my attraction to main character Ari, a second-generation Greek-Aussie who is angry and has a lot of issues (one of them being heavy drug use). So what do I like besides gorgeous Ari? Several times in the film he dances traditional Greek folk dances and he is most mesmerizing in these scenes. One of the first such dances is with his father with whom he has a mostly bad relationship. Ari's dancing expresses the conflicts and contradictions of the film and of course his own. (The film is largely seen through Ari's ineffable eyes.) The ending: The film seems to be careening relentlessly towards tragedy but it doesn't quite go there. It ends on an ambiguous note. Ever angry, but defiant too. And dancing.

In Head On, Alex Dimitriades plays a troubled young gay Greek-Australian man who has LOTS of anonymous sex and takes LOTS of drugs a LOT of the time. Be prepared for lots of explicit gay sex scenes, not to mention violence and drugs. But I really did not enjoy this film on the whole. The character interaction is very over the top. Characters fly into fits of rage without explanation, people break into fights without warning, and the dialogue is completely stilted and unnatural. I can see this film's basic message, of a young man trying to come to grips with his heritage and also find love and happiness in a world of parties, drugs and sex. It's a dreary procedure, however, that portays Greeks as hysterical violent thugs who dance, literally dance, all day in any situation, even while in the middle of a fight! There are many incomprehensible decisions, actions and the film goes absolutely nowhere. Yes, you feel for this young man who just can't find his way. But it's like this filmmaker is trying too hard to make an "oooh-shocking!", "hard-edged" indie film. It just doesn't work.

This film is basically a Saturday Night Fever re-tread. Yeah, the family is Greek, no, there isn't any disco dancing or Bee Gees, but there is a dark, brooding magnetic lead trying to break out of his family's traditions, expectations and the hedonistic culture around him. It's his ethnic culture that prevents him from being his gay self, distorting his view of what that means (very funny that the Greeks, of all people, should be so adverse to homosexuality) and a drug culture that pulls him downward.But it's a bit of snooze. Sure, there are bits of raw sexual activity but they aren't very well integrated into the rest of the film--like his main character, sex and drugs seem to be the only thing that excites this director, as the rest of the film feels flat and arid in a way that disengages the viewer. The narrative is as confused as the lead, Ari; in fact, this film ends where it really should begin. Instead it just meanders about; all we know is that Ari wants to "move out" but we never see what that means or what influences him to be at all aspirational. Sure, we see the push but what's the pull? Since it's obvious to the viewer from the start that Ari is in a confused state about things, how interesting is it for us to watch him over an hour and forty minutes learn what we already know? Well, since the handsome, well-built Alex Dimitriades is playing Ari, fairly interesting at that, but even his committed, intense performance begins to loop back on itself--and it's clear, as an actor, that he is capable of so much more. He's boxed in by repetitive writing--Ari is frustrated, he's frustrated, he's frustrated--get it? Yeah, got it. In the first scene.The best scenes are between Dimitriades and his friend Johnny/Tula, excellently played with and without drag, by Paul Capsis. It would've been better if the film focused more on this relationship, foregoing lengthy and obvious sequences about Ari's Greek heritage. Though revealing, unresolved, under-developed subplots about his friend's engagement and his younger sister go nowhere and make the film lose focus; these characters only exist to say something about Ari. An attraction between Ari and a very pale-featured man named Sean is unconvincing; the director takes for granted that because they're gay they'll get together when the viewer can see that they are clearly chalk and cheese--though this is obvious, their relationship, rather conveniently, isn't really explored which makes the final denouement unsurprising. It should've been the first scene. (In fact, Ari's attractions make this feel, at times, like a gay Breaking The Waves.) Dimitrades is too likable for us to feel critical of his behaviour; instead it feels more like he is let down by the people around him (save Capsis) and should really be mixing with a better grade of people that he has more in common with. Sometimes it's that easy. But the film doesn't go there.Ultimately, the film doesn't go head on with anything, though it can be credited with some subtlety and one can easily admire the work of Dimitriades and Capsis.