It’s almost impossible to have a thorough discussion about the myth of the American West and the way it permeated pop culture without 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 violent Westerns that many enthusiasts would say rival or surpass the American Westerns made by the likes of John Ford and Howard Hawks. From their largely European casts and overtly Catholic imagery to their hot-blooded stories of violent revenge, the so-called Spaghetti Westerns were distinctly Italian products. But their existence was only possible due to the endless fascination that Italians had with America and the myths that Hollywood loved to perpetuate.
Italy’s love of American cowboys provides the backdrop for “Heads or Tails,” the new film from “The Tale of King Crab” directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis that once again feels like it was ripped from the yellowing pages of a beautiful old storybook. It’s the 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 turned into a hot ticket among Italy’s elite, with his carefully curated stage presence giving these aristocrats the sense that they’re interacting with a real live cowboy.
A hustler to his bones, Cody sometimes struggles to reconcile his stage persona as a Wild West adventurer with the fact that he’s the kind of man who sails to Europe to entertain wealthy Italians. During a conversation with a rich local farmer who boasts about the roping skills of his own cowboys, Cody agrees to stage a rodeo contest between the Italian ranchers and his team of trained professionals. The farmer agrees to his terms, though 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, reluctantly agrees 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 scene 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 persona from reality. Reilly gives a predictably excellent performance as the legendary entertainer, nailing both his on-stage bravado and the private moments of insecurity where he hesitates to drop the act because he’s 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 murderer, he sets out on his own journey through the Italian countryside.
Cody is reduced to a supporting character in the rest of the film — a pity, given how entertaining Reilly’s performance is, but it makes narrative sense. The focus shifts to Santino and Rosa, who quickly find that the initial euphoria of escaping routines doesn’t protect 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 hero among revolutionaries who want to seize the means of production. Rather than correct his admirers and explain that Rosa is the killer, he embraces the newfound fame and finds his public mask fusing to his face in a manner that’s not unlike what happened to Buffalo Bill. As the story takes a brilliantly surreal turn that will remain unspoiled, Rosa is forced to reckon with the bleak fact that the stories we tell ourselves, whether they’re pulpy Western novels or sweeping romances within our own lives, are often written by the victors and clouded by their own delusions and desires.
“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-producing nations its own moment in the spotlight, and the country’s landscapes more than rise to the occasion.
“Heads or Tails” builds on the playbook that Rigo de Righi and Zoppis established with their first film, exploring the ways that time erodes our shared stories despite presenting itself in a package that’s utterly timeless. Sentimental when it needs to be and subversive whenever boredom lurks around the corner, “Heads or Tails” is a fitting second entry in what could soon become one of the most stylistically distinct bodies of work among today’s active filmmakers.
Grade: B+
“Heads or Tails” premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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