The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen Read Online Free Page A

them both. He was happy, and decided, Why can't I choose the day I die? Why can't I die out of happiness? It's a hard thing to come to terms with.”
    The Believer
is a murky, unsettling film that offers no easy answers. “The reason I think it is a testament to the beauty of Judaism and the strength of his faith,” says Gosling, “is that he could give you every reason not to believe it. And he does. He can tell you everything that is wrong with it, and he is so learned as to why you should hate it, but at the same time he loves it.”
    Danny is a complicated, profoundly troubled character, so in love with his faith that it makes him feel weak, and therefore must destroy it. “He's just one of those people who couldn't help what he thought,” says Gosling. “He felt two ways about it.” It's a confounding philosophy — the idea of showing love by embracing hate — and the product of an unstable mind. “He just wanted to feel strong, and as a confused kid he went in a confused direction.”
    The real find here is Ryan Gosling, an Ontario native who broke into show business following an audition for
The Mickey Mouse Club
. At age 12 he moved to Orlando, Florida, and performed with fellow mouseketeers Britney Spears and members of 'N Sync. His television work included lightweight syndicated fare like
Breaker High
and the lead in
Young Hercules
, and his lone film role before
The Believer
was as the thirteenth-billed Bosley in
Remember the Titans
.
The Believer
is a quantum leap forward for Gosling. In a powerhouse performance as the steely-eyed Danny he lends humanity to a paradoxical character. At no time does the performance hit a false note. It's a commanding performance that deservedly won the Best Actor award at the Independent Spirit Awards.
    Chances are you haven't seen
The Believer
on the big screen. It played briefly in independent theaters, but found its main audience on specialty channels like Showcase.
    â€œWe had a hard time with it, but a beautiful time as well,” says Gosling. “The film is about contradiction, and that is the response to the film. It's been a real rollercoaster. It went from Henry and I and a small crew stealing shots in New York with a very low budget, trying to make a movie that nobody really wanted us to make. Not thinking that anybody was ever going to see it, but just sort of wanting to tell the story. We never thought we'd get into Sundance, let alone win Sundance. That was such a high, and then everybody wanted the movie. And then everybody realized
what
they wanted, and got scared, then nobody wanted the movie. We couldn't find a home for the movie. Then we thought this movie is never going to be seen, and that was it, and then we found a couple of homes for it and alternative ways of getting it seen. That became more important than anything, making sure people saw the film.”
    The Believer
is a very difficult film. Some will find the subject matter offensive, and while that is an understandable judgment — the anti-Semitic ravings of the skinheads are particularly difficult to watch — it is also an ambitious film that sometimes overreaches, but is anchored by a great performance by Gosling. We follow his progression from idiosyncratic self-hatred to liberation; all the while the camera never judges him, but merely observes him. Perhaps if director Bean had been less tolerant of Danny's Nazism the film might have had more appeal, à la
American History X
. It's a hot-potato topic, and certainly not for every taste.
    BETTER OFF DEAD (1985)
    â€œI want my two dollars!”
    â€” Johnny (Demian Slade), the psychotic paperboy
    The 1980s: the heyday of
Donkey Kong
, parachute pants, Cabbage Patch Dolls, New Coke, breakdancing, and of course, deliciously funny teen comedies. Hollywood still pumps 'em out by the cartload, but the Golden Age of adolescent humor dates back to the days when a new Brat Pack film was