The Believer (2001) 8/10

Starring : Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane
Director : Henry Bean
Running Time : 98 mins

Danny Balint (Gosling) is an extremely anti-Semetic man, who joins a gang of skinheads and starts attending fascist meetings lead by the highly prolific self-proclaimed fascist Curtis Zampf (Zane) – the only problem with Danny’s beliefs is, he himself is Jewish. As Danny is lead deeper and deeper into his racist life, he starts to use his knowledge of Judaism as a way of arguing against it, giving his racist peers the ammunition they need to argue their points.

There’s a very powerful performance from the relative unknown Ryan Gosling in this intriguing and engrossing movie. He manages to gain sympathy from the audience whilst still conveying self-hatred in his every move, while the remainder of the cast either discourage or fuel his hatred of all things Jewish. A very thought provoking movie, which is also based on true events.

You’ll like this if you liked : American History X