Head On

Alex Dimitriades is "Ari" - a young Greek man whose family emigrated to live in Melbourne, where he is struggling to get job. To kill time, he hangs around with his mates snorting cocaine and - on the quiet - meeting men for casual sex. It's not really a "gay" film; it is a much broader analysis of a young man with neither the roots of his country, nor of a relationship to help him through his rather meaningless existence. His community is trying to straddle their need to honour their homeland traditions whilst adapting to the "tolerances" of their new home - brought to a head by some fairly grisly homophobic behaviour all round in the last twenty minutes or so. Demitriades is fine, as is Paul Capsis as his openly gay/transvestite cousin "Johnny" but the rest of the cast seem there to reinforce the stereotypes and therefore add little to any meaningful dialogue. To be honest, it could be a depiction of any immigrant culture in any country - and falls a bit flat as "Ari" seems ultimately rather deserving of his shallow existence...