



It is almost impossible to have a thorough discussion for the myth of the American West and the Way It Permeated Pop Culture with Turning One’s Attention to Italy. Italian Filmmakers Like Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci Had A Field Day With Cowboy Iconography in The 1960s, Churning Out a Series of Violents that MANY ENTHUSSIASSSSIASTS ROVAL OR SUREPERS The American Westerns made by the Likes of John ford and How Hawks. From Their far-EUROPELY CASTS AND OVERTY CATHOLIC IMAGERY TO THEIR HOT-BOODED STORIES OF VIOLENT REVEWE, The SO-CALLED SPAGETTI WEERTLY DISTINCTLY Italian Products. But theyir existence was Only Postsible Due to the Endless fascination that Italians HAD with America and the Myths That Hollywood Love to Perpetuate.
Italy’s Love of American Cowboys provides the backdrop for “Heads or Tails,” The New Film from “The Tale of King Crab” Alessio Rigo de Rigo and Matteo Zoppis that once Again Like it was repipeped from the Yelowing of the Yelowing Pages of a Beautiful Old Story. It ‘s Turn of the 20th Century and Legendary Entertainer BUFFALO BILL CODY (John C. Reilly) Has Brought His Blockbuster Wild West Show Across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. HIS Traveling Circus of Lassoing, Sharpshooting, and Cowboy Crooning has tourned into a hot ticket among Italy’s Elite, with his curated stages presence giving these aristocrats the thrat they’d a real live cowboy.
A hustler to his his bones, cody Sometimes struggles to reconcile his stage person as a Wild west adventurer with the fact that he’s the Kind of what Europe to entertain wealthy Italians. During a conversation with a rich Local Farmer Who Boasts About the Roping Skills of His Own Cowboys, Cody Aggrees to Stage a Rodeo Bettest The Italian Ranchers and His Team of Trained Professionals. The farmer aggrees to his term, thiugh he asks his star ranch-hand santino (allesandro borghi) to take a dive as part of a gambling scheme. Santino, who is as proud as he is devilishly handsome, relictantly aggrees but is unable to go through with his promise. He wins the contest, humiliating the Americans while alienating his boss. With nothing left for Him at home, he decides to flee the scnene with rosa (Nadia tereszkiewicz), his true love who just happens to be the boss’ wife. For good measure, she shoots her husband in the head on her way out the door.
With his reputation on the line, buffalo bill decides to go after the Runaway Lovers. The showman is not particularly skilled as a bounty hunter, but he once again struggles to separate his from reality. Reilly gives a predictablent excellent performance as the legendary entertainer, Nailing all of the bravado and the private moments of inseciation where he and drop the acts of the one not clear what mask he’d don in its place. With no Easy Way to Turn Down His Employer’s Father’s Request to Catch his Son’s Murder, he sets on his journey through the Italian Countryside.
Cody is reduced to a suppue character in the rest of the film – a pity, gioven how entertaining reilly’s performance is, but it narrative senses. The Focus Shifts to Santino and Rosa, who quickly Find that the initial euphoria of escaping routines doesn’t protest against relationship struggles. The Outside World Mistakenly Believes That Santino Killed Rosa’s Father Because of the Bounty Placed on His Head, and he soon beComes a folk among revolutionaries who want to see the means of production. Rather than Correct his admirers and explain that rosa is the killer, he embrace the newfound fame and finds his public mask fuing to his face in a manner not unlike what happy to buffalo bill. Nor the story taks a brillianly surreal turn that Will Remain Unspoiled, Rosa is forces to reckon with the Bleak fact that the stories we tell ourselves, where he’re pulpy western novels or sweeeping romances with the victors and clues by their own delusions and desire.
“Heads or Tails” is visually stunning, with Italy’s forests and mountains captured in a rich Celluloid Color palette that will look as marvelous in 100 years as it would have a century ago. The storybook Shot Composition Benefits from the Fact That Very Few Westerns Were Ever Actually Filmed in Italy, As Sergio Leone and His Colleagues Primarily Shot Their Outdoor sequences in the deserts of spain. The film gives one of the World’s Greatest Western-Production Nations Its Own in the Spotlight, and the Country’s Landscapes more than Rise to the Occoation.
“Heads or Tails” Builds on the Playbook that rigo de Righi and zoppis estabreed with their first film, exploring the ways that time erodes shared stories presenting itelf in a package that utterly timeless. Sentimental when it needs to be and subversive boredom lurks around the corner, “Heads or Tails” is a fitting second entry in what COULD soon one of the Most stylistically Bodies of Work Among Today’s Filmmakers.
Grade: B+
“Heads or Tails” Premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking us distribution.
Want to stay up to date on indouwire’s movie review and Critical Thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, in revix by david ehrlich, in which our chief film crittic and head revivs editor rounds up the best Reviews and streaming picks with some exclusive musgs – all only available to subscribers.
Source link