Film Review: "Believer" (2018).

"On a journey to reconcile pride and faith." This is Believer. This documentary film directed by Don Argott. The film follows Mormon Dan Reynolds, frontman for the Grammy Award-winning band Imagine Dragons, as he takes on a new mission to explore how the Mormon Church treats its LGBTQ members. With the rising suicide rate amongst teens in the state of Utah, his concern with the church’s policies sends him on an unexpected path of acceptance and change. The film documents a year of Reynolds’ life during the process of organizing the first-ever LoveLoud Festival concert in Orem, Utah, to benefit such gay rights organizations as GLAAD and the Trevor Project, among others. While the film takes a broader look at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ treatment of LGBTQ members, it also focuses on the suicide rate in the community, which has skyrocketed in the last decade.

American singer, songwriter and record producer, Daniel Coulter Reynolds, was born on July 14, 1987 and he is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the pop rock bank Imagine Dragons. Since his childhood, Reynolds is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). When he was nineteen years old, he volunteered full-time as a missionary in Nebraska for two years.

Filming took place in Salt Lake City and Orem, as well as New York City and Las Vegas, where Reynolds was born in 1987. The LDS Church released a statement just ten days before the 2017 LOVELOUD event, supporting the effort "to foster a community of inclusion in which no one is mistreated because of who they are or what they believe."

A fine documentary which earns mileage on the charm and sincerity of its subject while losing points for occasional lapses into evasiveness. Poignant and moving, with an ending no screenwriter could improve on, the film is like the best episode of VH1's Bands Reunited ever. As the credits roll, the film transforms from a puff piece about a Mormon rock star into a moving rumination on a man's devotion for faith and community. One of those stories so incredible that even the most creative Hollywood screenwriters couldn't have come up with it. It's hard to imagine much of an audience for this film outside of the limited ranks of Imagine Dragons fans, or those who swoon over any whiff of celebrity ruin and retrieval, regardless of how conventional. You needn't be a fan of rock and roll to be both amused and moved by this documentary...a winningly bittersweet little film. An intimate portrait of a man who has lived the hard life and finally opted for serenity. Things don't turn out the way you expect, but that's part of what's surprising and moving about this film. Argott delicately balances both Reynolds' devotion to his faith.and his more glamorous rock 'n' roll past and pays respect to both. In the end, it is hard to not feel that God does work in mysterious ways, if the life of Reynolds is any example.

Simon says Believer receives:

Also, see my review for Batman & Bill.