Head On

Overlong but intensely acted, Australian director Ana Kokkinos's adaptation of Chritos Tsiolkas's novel Loaded traces the desperate downward spiral of Ari (Alex Dimitriades), a young immigrant searching for freedom in the back alleys of Melbourne, Australia. Socialist radicals in their homeland, Ari's parents (Tony Nikolakopoulos, Eugenia Fragos) now live model immigrant lives in the heart of Melbourne's tightly knit, socially conservative Greek enclave, teaching their children the value of hard work, diligent study and, above all, getting married and raising a family. But they're worried about Ari — he's single, unemployed, lives at home and shows no s...