The Believer Long before Ryan Gosling
faced overexposure as Hollywood's it-boy of yesterday, he was
the come from nowhere up and comer in the low budget and fierce
The Believer (2001). Missed it in theaters? You're not the only
one. After a brief run in only a few markets, The Believer, co-written
and directed by Henry Bean, scored on Showtime, where the story
of a Jewish teen who becomes a skinhead captured the fancy of
op-ed writers. It also fascinated casting agents who wondered
why they hadn't gotten a hold of somebody who could contribute such a focused, scary performance.
Prior to this role, Gosling was mostly a TV performer going all
the way back to The Mickey Mouse Club. Like other performance
driven movies, The Believer is okay, but not great. What is great,
though, is the violent, tough, hurt Gosling. Here, he grapples
with family ties, self-loathing, and larger picture religious
issues in a way that makes such an unbelievable story (it's even
based on a true life tale of a KKK member from the 1960s) more
real. The fact that Billy Zane and his bald head don't make you
laugh says plenty about the power of this story.
The Basketball
Diaries Also newly released on
DVD, The Basketball Diaries (1995) is another performance driven
movie. This time, a young Leonardo DiCaprio is in his first starring
role, and he, too, is better than the material. The movie is
based on singer Jim Carroll's autobiography of the same name,
which chronicles the story of a teen-age boy who negotiates an
overbearing mom (Lorraine Bracco), a sick friend, and the demands
of the basketball team, including a creepy coach played by the
usually huggable, late Bruno Kirby. Time to blow off steam with
some shenanigans that quickly move from petty crime with a band
of friends to heroin addiction. This leads to, of course, DiCaprio
having to prostitute himself. Okay, so it sounds like an after
school special, but the movie (mostly)
works, thanks to DiCaprio, who, in his superstar present, is
often overlooked as a pretty good actor. Plus, his omnipresent
voice over (works for me, but I have a friend who hates it) allows
us to understand more about the struggles the character is experiencing.
He can sell the "Let's go get high" transition to prostitution
and murder pretty good, even when the movie can't quite do it.
Still, the anti-drug message is pretty convincing, even if it
falls too often into cliché. In addition to Bracco, fellow
Sopranos star Michael Imperioli makes a brief appearance, as
does Juliette Lewis and a young Mark Wahlberg.
Long before Ryan Gosling
faced overexposure as Hollywood's it-boy of yesterday, he was
the come from nowhere up and comer in the low budget and fierce
The Believer (2001). Missed it in theaters? You're not the only
one. After a brief run in only a few markets, The Believer, co-written
and directed by Henry Bean, scored on Showtime, where the story
of a Jewish teen who becomes a skinhead captured the fancy of
op-ed writers. It also fascinated casting agents who wondered
why they hadn't gotten a hold of somebody who could 
contribute such a focused, scary performance.
Prior to this role, Gosling was mostly a TV performer going all
the way back to The Mickey Mouse Club. Like other performance
driven movies, The Believer is okay, but not great. What is great,
though, is the violent, tough, hurt Gosling. Here, he grapples
with family ties, self-loathing, and larger picture religious
issues in a way that makes such an unbelievable story (it's even
based on a true life tale of a KKK member from the 1960s) more
real. The fact that Billy Zane and his bald head don't make you
laugh says plenty about the power of this story.
Also newly released on
DVD, The Basketball Diaries (1995) is another performance driven
movie. This time, a young Leonardo DiCaprio is in his first starring
role, and he, too, is better than the material. The movie is
based on singer Jim Carroll's autobiography of the same name,
which chronicles the story of a teen-age boy who negotiates an
overbearing mom (Lorraine Bracco), a sick friend, and the demands
of the basketball team, including a creepy coach played by the
usually huggable, late Bruno Kirby. Time to blow off steam with
some shenanigans that quickly move from petty crime with a band
of friends to heroin addiction. This leads to, of course, DiCaprio
having to prostitute himself. Okay, so it sounds like an after
school special, 
but the movie (mostly)
works, thanks to DiCaprio, who, in his superstar present, is
often overlooked as a pretty good actor. Plus, his omnipresent
voice over (works for me, but I have a friend who hates it) allows
us to understand more about the struggles the character is experiencing.
He can sell the "Let's go get high" transition to prostitution
and murder pretty good, even when the movie can't quite do it.
Still, the anti-drug message is pretty convincing, even if it
falls too often into cliché. In addition to Bracco, fellow
Sopranos star Michael Imperioli makes a brief appearance, as
does Juliette Lewis and a young Mark Wahlberg.