Well, this was a disappointment. One of my personal favorite sub-genres is the Spaghetti Western. I really admired The Tale of King Crab, the first narrative by writer-directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, and I was delighted to see these guys riffing off Sergio Leone in a movie starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz, with her sexy magnetism and feral unpredictability, Allesandro Borghi of the acclaimed The Eight Mountains, and the always hilarious John C. Reilly. This looked really good.
Heads or Tails? begins with a bizarre, but historical event – Buffalo Bill Cody (John C. Reilly) putting on his Wild West Show, a live spectacle of cowboys and Indians, for an Italian audience circa 1900. Buffalo Bill lived through the most exciting phase of the Old West, having been a Pony Express rider, buffalo hunter and a scout in the Indian Wars. A remarkable showman and entrepreneur, he capitalized on his experiences by creating the Wild West Show, which entertained Easterners and Europeans with riding, roping, shooting, real life bison and an Indian “battle”. Indigenous cast members even included Sitting Bull. Of course, Cody himself knew that the show was filled with hokum, but he happily became rich by playing the role. The Wild West Show did tour Italy twice, once performing for the Pope.
A local aristocrat, a scummy wife-beater, has hosted Buffalo Bill’s performance, and afterwards, tries to further enrich himself with a crooked wager. Santino (Borghi), a dim but virile cattle worker, screws up the wager, and, the furious nobleman suspects that Santino has also been involved with his young wife Rosa (Tereszkiewicz). The aristocrat is killed, and Santino and Rosa go on the run.
At this point, Heads or Tails? leaves conventional Spaghetti Western territory, adds a heavy dose of surrealism, and becomes less coherent – and less watchable.
John C. Reilly, who captures Buffalo Bill’s performative bluster and worldly cynicism, is brilliant, but 80% of the story follows Rosa and Santino without Buffalo Bill.
I streamed Heads or Tails? on Amazon Prime, and most of the dialogue, except for Reilly’s, seemed dubbed in English. I found it off-putting, and didn’t understand it because Tereszkiewicz, who is French, speaks both Italian and English. Besides Amazon, you can also stream Heads or Tails? on AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.