Its incendiary subject matter is flattened into something dangerously close to exploitative melodrama.
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06/18/02
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The Believer (2002)
81
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:85
Fresh:69
Rotten:16
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: Gosling commands the screen with a raw, electrifying performance.
Theatrical Release:May 17, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $157,487
Synopsis: Raised Jewish, Danny (Ryan Gosling) now runs with an anti-Semitic skinhead gang in Queens. Attending a meeting held by prominent self-proclaimed fascist Curtis Zampf (Billy Zane), Danny is noticed... [More]
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Billy Zane, Theresa Russell
Director: Henry Bean
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Reviews for The Believer
A penetrating, potent exploration of sanctimony, self-awareness, self-hatred and self-determination.
06/18/02
Gosling's spellbinding performance makes Danny's journey irresistible.
06/15/02
Blessed with a searing lead performance by Ryan Gosling (Murder by Numbers), the movie is powerful and provocative. It's also built on a faulty premise, one it follows into melodrama and silliness.
06/14/02
Top CriticRyan Gosling gives an amazing performance. It's powerful, disturbing, and terribly tragic. You cannot watch this without being affected by it.
06/14/02
Ryan Gosling ... is at 22 a powerful young actor.
06/14/02
Top CriticA sham construct based on theory, sleight-of-hand, and ill-wrought hypothesis.
06/13/02
It's a raw, deeply felt portrait of self-loathing turned inside out.
06/13/02
Top CriticSee it. Debate it. Remember it.
06/13/02
Top CriticRyan Gosling ... delivers the kind of performance that should make studio heads look up from their manicures, casting directors reach for their cell phones and moviegoers ask each other, 'Who on earth was that?'
06/13/02
Despite its attacks on fascism, “The Believer” itself carries the taint of anti-Semitism, implying that self-hatred is a Jewish trait and that Danny’s case is unusual only in its extremity.
06/13/02
The most compelling performance of the year adds substantial depth to this shocking testament to anti-Semitism and neo-fascism.
06/10/02
That rare film that earns a most unusual compliment -- I wish it were longer.
06/09/02
Bean's film concentrates almost entirely on the externals -- the bluster, the swagger -- when the story he is treating just begs for full, detailed, potentially explosive emotional and psychological scrutiny.
06/07/02
Top CriticEasily the most thoughtful fictional examination of the root causes of anti-Semitism ever seen on screen.
06/07/02
Top CriticClick to read the article
06/01/02
A cinematic sucker punch.
06/01/02
An amazing and incendiary movie that dives straight into the rough waters of contradiction.
05/31/02
Mr. Bean's diagnosis of Jewish self-hatred in The Believer may be misdirected in the present circumstances.
05/30/02
Top CriticValiente cinta, bien lograda y de soberbia actuación, aunque el tema será muy cuestionado y habrá quien la cuestione por lidiar con las temáticas de lo injustificable.
05/27/02
Latest News for The Believer
June 28, 2007:
Ryan Gosling Signs On to Peter Jackson's "Lovely Bones"
The 27-year-old actor will be playing the husband to 36-year-old Rachel Weisz. They'll be playing the parents of a (dead) 14-year-old girl in the Peter Jackson pic. More...
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