MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

DeuceWild_77 Ryan Gosling is another living proof that most actors gave their best on-screen performances early in their careers when they still have that freshness and hunger for acting. "The Believer" written & directed by Henry Bean (the scriptwriter of "Internal Affairs") tells a story of a young neo-nazi skinhead, Daniel Balint, a self-hating Jew that develops an out of control anti-Semitic philosophy that made him join a White Supremacist group led by the charismatic Curtis Zampf. Based on actual facts, the Daniel Burros' incident, a Jewish American who was a former member of the 'American National Party' and later, a recruiter for the 'United Klans of America' that shot himself to death when his Jewish heritage was exposed in the New York Times by a reporter, "The Believer" is an exceptional well-made film in the vein of "American History X" that grabs the viewer into the tragic story of a misguided young adult, fighting with himself due to his personal views about the closed-minded orthodox Jewish religion and community that causes him to alienate deeply into hate for the authority, religion intolerance and the weakness of thy followers and at the same time, a profound respect for the old traditions of his own heritage. Ryan Gosling delivers a 'tour de force' / haunting performance that deserved even more praise (Golden Globes, SAG and even the Academy Awards) strong supported by the veteran Theresa Russell as the cold-hearted Lina Moebius, the mistress of the White Supremacist Curtis Zampf played gingerly by Billy Zane. Summer Phoenix (River & Joaquin's younger sister) seems a bit lost in the role (and her character wasn't that well developed) but she still delivers. A must-see movie for fans of a competent social drama, away from the Hollywood gimmicks (this is a small budget / independent film) that appreciate this kind of character study.

hyperzephyrian 2001's The Believer, Ryan Gosling's Film Debut, Gosling portrays Danny Balint. A young Jewish man who is struggling to understand Judaism, while developing Anti-Semetic views towards the World. Though based on real-life accounts of Ku Klux Klan Member Daniel Burros, who was outed as a Jew, in a News article, which later caused him to take his own life on the day the article was released, in October 1965, the film takes place in the Present Day, with a number of flashbacks to Danny's time in a Jewish School, as a young teen.A powerful, dark, extremely controversial, and resonating film, which garnered almost no recognition, though the performance from Gosling was spectacular. This film far exceeded my expectations.7.7/10

Chris L The Believer is like Danny: confused. The movie raises a lot of questions but answers little of them, in particular regarding the reasons that pushed him to develop such a hate.The script has almost no twists or turning points, and the dialogues are ultra verbose, which leads to an overall linearity and very slow paced rhythm.The direction and editing aren't much of a help either. The flashbacks fit badly with the story, but more importantly Henry Bean used tacky, ridiculous visual effects throughout the movie such as weird slow motions.In the end, the only satisfaction of this film is Ryan Gosling whose acting abilities are already noticeable even with his little experience at the time.

Theo Robertson This stirred up a lot of controversy when it was released . Up and coming pretty boy actor plays violent neo-Nazi in no holds barred indie film examining racial hatred and what sets THE BELIEVER apart from its peers is that it's 1 ) Based on a true story 2 ) The violent protagonist is from an orthodox Jewish background himself Now that the controversy has died to such an extent you're left thinking if there was any controversy at all then what we're left with is a movie that is confused and totally underdeveloped . So much so that I have no hesitation that this is a fairly dreadful movie regardless of its content Early on we're shown via flashback the protagonist Danny Balint struggle to believe that the Abrahamic God he is taught about at school is a benevolent loving God and the audience are left thinking he's no different from the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in that God is the cruellist , most sadistic character in fiction . Effectively Danny's rage doesn't come from his views on race but from religion . In fact the film ends with a character telling him " Don't go up there. There's nothing there " which can be interpreted as going to heaven . But the way rest of the film has been badly developed this is surely coincidence rather than subtext Things happen in the film that are never followed up on and remain unexplained . Danny gets together with like minded violent Nazi types , or should that be stereotypes ? They're portrayed in such a one dimensional manner you're almost expecting them to burst in to Springtime For Hitler . They decide to bomb a Synagog but not before Danny tells them to leave the Judiac scripture alone . Luckily the bomb doesn't go off and one wonders if Danny had something to do with this , but this is never followed up . Likewise a sniper attack where Danny misses his target and one of Danny's colleague is wounded comes to nothing . Throughout the movie you're expecting Nazi characters we were introduced to earlier in the film to re-appear and add something to the plot but people appear then disappear from the narrative without explanation or follow through This is a painfully ill thought out film that leaves the audience thinking what the point of the film is . It does touch upon the suggestion that some of the hierarchy of Nazi Germany were of distant Jewish descent themselves hence a bitter irony but like everything else in the movie you never believe this is what the film is trying to tell us. It's confused storytelling at its very worst BTW the selling point that it's based on a " true life character " , namely Daniel Burros is merely artistic license . It's " a true story " in much the same way Michael Bay's PEARL HARBOR is a true story . In other words it's a cynical marketing excersise . In the words of Public Enemy don't believe the hype