Heads or Tails is a love letter to Spaghetti Westerns of the past

I grew up with Spaghetti Westerns, and most of them weren't great. But watch something as a child enough, and you grow a fondness for it, even if later on you acknowledge it isn't exactly of the highest quality.

For me, it was every cowboy film not made in America. The real thing came later, and they're an entirely different kind of love affair altogether.

I mean the Eurotrash films shot in Italy, Spain, and Turkey, with questionable budgets, charismatic leading men who didn't speak a word of English, and baffling plots that were chaotic genre cocktails but also undisputably sincere.

In that sense, I was predisposed to love Heads or Tails, which might sound like a backhanded compliment. As if to suggest it is a bad film, only unintentionally good through the eyes of nostalgia. That's not the case. In fact, Heads or Tails is a terrific picture, but I'm not certain it's for everyone.

Heads or Tails is both a love letter and an utterly sincere emulation of the Spaghetti Western. It is as fascinated by the elasticity of genre conventions as anything made by Sergio Gorbucci or Raoul Walsh. As directed by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, Heads or Tails skips and hops between tone and style without a care in the world. One minute it's a comedy, the next an Acid Western, and perhaps a tragedy the next. Who can say?

The plot is as freewheeling and inconsequential as they come. It is the early 1900s, and Buffalo Bill (a tremendous John C. Reilly) is on tour with his famous Wild West Show. He's a braggart and swindler, though deep down he wishes he could be like the hero he writes in his dime novels.

At a show in Rome, Bill challenges a local squire to a duel to see whose cowboys are tougher. Plans build upon schemes, and before you know it, the squire lies dead, and two lovers, Rosa (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) and Santino (Alessandro Borghi), are on the run. Partially to blame for all of this, Bill is hired to pursue.

The film hops between the pursuer and the pursued, though it's clear that structure isn't of great concern. Reilly plays the part as if in a straight comedy, while the lovers are far more operatic. They all feel out of time and place, as if some fantastic figures out of an old world who refuse to accept that everyone else has moved on.

The result is an acquired taste. Those looking for a straight western will undoubtedly be disappointed, while those hoping for something trippier won't find it here, either. But those of us who love the hopeless romanticism of this genre will find much to adore. This is a film drenched in bittersweet melancholy, where every gag is a means to keep the show going just a little bit longer. Once the laughter stops, someone has to accept we've all got to go home.

Reilly is a generous actor, and it's never clearer than it is here. He's a huge presence; his mere stature throws the world askew when he walks on screen. Yet he never attempts to steal the film. Instead, he uses it to throw focus on our desperate lovers and the absurdity of it all. He is funny, tragic, and a little sad all at once. It's a wonderful performance from one of our great chameleons.

Tereszkiewicz and Borghi are equally lovable, especially as the film allows for them to play with their chaotic chemistry. As in other great Spaghetti Westerns, there's little chance for a happy ending on the frontier, but that won't stop anyone from living it up while they can.

Heads or Tails was shot in Tuscany sometime in 2024. It didn't see a full release until Cannes in 2025, and now on digital a full year later. Years ago, it would have found a second life on the shelves of rental stores, where it would grow in estimation as curious hands discovered it. Today, it seems less likely.

I hope many will give this curious, lovely film a chance. It is a small miracle that it even exists. It isn't perfect, and it doesn't always make sense, but it has a breath of the old world in it, and that counts for a lot.