|
|
|
|
 |
|||
|
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
| ||||||||||||
|
|
Head On Review by
Elias Savada
Headstrong
immigrant fathers, semi-understanding mothers, insubordinate children are the
norm in the brilliantly comic East Is East
(Pakistanis in England) and the provocative, darker Head
On (Greeks in Australia). Both pictures have their dysfunctional family
underpinnings, but the latter is a contemporary, sexual vision, spiraling deep
into the portrait of a young man in search of his own identity and caught in a
trap of cultural angst. Belatedly arriving in Washington, DC, after opening in
New York City in August 1999 (and a year earlier down under, where it won
several Australian Film Institute awards), the local daily newspapers gave the
film short shrift upon opening this weekend (the press screening print arrived
late), but the gay community may hear the buzz and wander in for a brief
look-see before the picture moves on to its next booking. Nihilistic, virile nineteen year old Ari (Australian TV
staple Alex Dimitriades) is dazed, confused, unemployed, and struggling to
understand his hetero/homo-sexual inclinations. He’s the first to admit he’s
no scholar, worker, or poet. His hard working, old-style idealist father, a
short-tempered man proud of his Greek origins, figures Ari to be a lost cause
and easy target. Polar opposites, dad takes to shouting at him in Greek, while
the angry young man returns taunts in English. Mom’s the bilingual U.N.
referee in a battle being lost on all sides. This is not 1950's sitcom land. Indulging in booze, pot, and cocaine, and harder drugs to
escape parental pressures, he recalls an easier life a decade earlier when his
then radically active family marched for freedom. Now emboldened as his body
succumbs to its latest injection or sniff, he strolls back alleys, sandwiching
unfulfilling, anonymous quick tricks with a Chinese restaurant worker or a
bearded barfly while tight-roping potential relationships with Sean (Julian
Garner), a full blooded native who shares Ari’s affinity for the Rolling
Stones, best friend Johnny (Paul Capsis), a freakish drag queen who lives with
his drunken, jobless father, and Betty (Elena Mandalis), a fellow snorter and
confidante. Head On is the
feature debut of Ana Kokkinos, the Greek-Australian director and co-writer with
Mira Robertson of the 1994 award-winning lesbian-themed extended short Only
the Brave. Based on her latest undertaking (my only exposure to her work),
Kokkinos appears to be a strong actor’s director, soliciting powerful
performances from her cast—a handful of lost souls surrounding the complex,
paradoxical lead. There is a gritty edge (thanks to director of photography
Jaems Grant’s hand-held closeups and effectively keyed lighting) to this
graphic cinematic day-in-the-life story, with dabblings of frontal nudity and
sadism. It may have a meandering tone, perhaps not all that focused, but the
film’s force lies in its portrayal of life’s hellish undertow that grabs at
its social castoffs and whorish dregs. Dimitriades makes a stunning show of it all. There’s
one sequence at the family home, after dad as put on a Greek record and starts
to dance the traditional tsiftiteli with daughter Alex (Andrea Mandalis).
Ari watches, a complacent gaze ironed on his face, as his dad approaches and
invites him into the circle. Ari, snapping his fingers, mechanically pleases his
father, but there’s no joy here, just a brief respite. Moments later, any
reconciliation that might have softened the distance between father and son is
violently erased. They are strangers sharing the same roof. Head On crashes rights into your gay expectations and drags them down into the gutter. Powerful forces are at work here. You won’t go home laughing. No way Contents | Features | Reviews
| Books | Archives | Store |
|
|
