99 Homes

99 Homes (2014)

*** (out of 4)

An unemployed father (Andrew Garfield) loses his home through a foreclosure but soon he starts working for real estate agent Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) who just happens to be the man who evicted him from his home. Pretty soon the man is learning how to make major cash but soon he begins having mixed emotions on his job of evicting people.

Ramin Bahrani co-wrote and directed this rather powerful and thought-provoking film that deals with the market crash of 2008. While everything here is very much fictional the director certainly gets his message across with some very realistic drama. It also doesn't hurt that you get two very good performances including one that ranks among the best of the year.

I will say that there are some flaws in the movie including the fact that the film pretty much is heroes and villains. I say this meaning that the entire foreclosure plot isn't really dealt with in a fair way but the point of the movie was to show how corrupt people can corrupt an already corrupt system. Some of the best moments in the movie deal with people being told they can no longer stay in their homes and these are the moments that work the best in the movie.

Bahrani does a very good job at keeping you caught up in the story being told, although the entire greed angle is something we've seen several times before. The cinematography, music score and all the technical stuff is quite good. Of course, it's the performances that make the film so memorable with Garfield turning in his best work to date. He has a lot of emotions to play here and perfectly nails them. Both Laura Dern and Clancy Brown are good in their small roles as well. With that said, the real star is once again Shannon who is remarkably cold as the snake Realtor who determines that his money is worth more than anyone's feelings.

Again, there are some very powerful moments in the film but the simple greed plot line kinda wore out towards the end of the picture. Still, it's technically very well-made and features a terrific performance by Shannon, which makes it worth watching.

"America doesn't bail out losers. America bails out winners." How is that for an American dream motto? This axiom, among many others presented in the film, is the foundation as the blood- splattered frames of Ramin Bahrani's latest offering begin to roll.

The blood is from a homeowner who'd rather kill himself than be kicked out of his home by Realtor Rick Carver (Michael Shannon). More of a preying vulture than empathetic human being, Carver shows no sympathy for the man who took his life instead of giving up his family home – an attitude trait we believe he has for everyone.

Bahrani, a prolific American independent director, is known for focusing on strong characters. Highly secretive and mostly broken individuals, the challenges and obstacles many of his protagonists face are mapped out and executed in unique, but usually tragic ways. His expertise is focusing more on the formula of their progression than the final outcome. With 99 Homes, Bahrani switches gears, focusing more on the narrative and development of the story, rather than his deep, often slow, evolution of memorable characters.

Thankfully, Bahrani doesn't exactly abandon ship in his character building philosophy with his main protagonist and antagonist in the film. He is able to put more focus on his narrative and visual style here, thanks to actor Shannon, who helps maintain the flow of Carver as well as the people around him. For the most part, character-driven directors find it difficult to give all creative energy to their actors, especially after building up a filmography that shows his obsession with leading his main men. But with an actor like Shannon, one of the most confident and reliable actors working today, Bahrani needs not have this fear of relinquishing control of character development. In fact, Shannon's understanding of Carver's journey and discreet choices of dialogue, begs the question if Bahrani could have achieved this character development on his own.

Bahrani's protagonist is Dennis Nash, played wonderfully by Andrew Garfield. Garfield, who was one of the few fortunate Hollywood actors to grace the stage with the legendary Philip Seymour Hoffman on the Broadway stint of Death of a Salesman, seems to have absorbed much of the acting genius of the late Hoffman. Holding his own against a larger than life acting force that is Shannon, Garfield's Nash allows himself to feed off Carver's greed and sinisterly convincing monologues with scenes of heart-wrench, grit and sensitivity.

99 Homes shouldn't be described as the typical tour-de-force, but more of a tour-de-fact cinematic achievement. The filmmaker, whose adamant cinematic attitude is almost non- apologetic on-screen, choosing to highlight a truly sad time in American history. Set in Florida in 2010, when homes were being repossessed by the bank for every chime of the clock on the wall, the film shows a raw portrait of every family's worst nightmare; a moment of complete vulnerability and uncertainty–being left on the side of the road, with all you're worldly possessions sitting on the lawn.

As troubling as it sounds, some of the best scenes of the film are when people are evicted from their homes. Beginning with Nash, his mother Lynn Nash (Laura Dern) and son Connor (Noah Lomax), and ranging from young, old, non-English speaking, accepting and manic, the film shows the different shades of people, sometimes dangerous and always desperate.

Nash, a general contractor who never sits at the wayside, becomes a true character of action. The determination of Dennis Nash, thanks to the convincing acting of Garfield, is a little glimmer of hope that man is able to triumph over the recklessness of society's actions, but at a severe cost. Nash's choices and inner struggle is a sharp and dangerous double-edged sword. Nash is a truly tormented moral character who, through his journey of self-discovery, wealth and pain, always draws on the most basic human elements. The biggest question Bahrani leaves audiences with is, "what would you do if you were left in the same situation?"

Possibly the most commercial of his work thus far, the director of Chop Shop, Man Push Cart, At Any Cost and my personal favourite Goodbye Solo, does a magnificent job of juggling the moral and ethical lines of his characters, allowing the audience to ask itself the same questions the characters are asking themselves as the film progresses. This fine element of 99 Homes keeps Bahrani's tradition of bustlingly tragic and anguished characters alive with vivid, exciting, and mostly unpredictable results.

99 Homes is one of the most complete and appealing films of Bahrani's career. Engaging enough for causal movie-goers, and enough to chew for veteran nit-picking cinephiles, the film is easily one of the most compelling films at TIFF.

Garfield may be know for his role as afflicted teen Peter Parker or Spider-Man by many, while audiences may know Shannon best for his villainous turn as General Zod in the recent Superman reboot Man of Steel. The best part about watching 99 Homes is analyzing these men, and seeing them transform before our eyes into the demons that haunt the streets and doorsteps of everyday people. Sheltered in our own little seats and watching the unfortunate tragedy unfold on-screen, this compassionate slice of other people's reality is one of the most engaging features of 2014. Founded on concrete performances, sturdy direction and a narrative with a good roof on its head, 99 Homes is built to last.

This film tells the story of a hard working builder who gets unemployed, and hence cannot keep up with the mortgage payments and is subsequently evicted. Stars align themselves and his fortune is reversed when he is offered a job by the man who evicted him from his home.

"99 Homes" has an intense beginning that absorbs me into the story. The circumstances it portrays is very real and relevant to people in lower income brackets, and their pain of losing their homes is piercingly recreated. I feel so sorry for Dennis because he appears to be such a hard-working, honest and amicable guy. As the story progresses, he is faced with various moral dilemmas. The story is captivating, and it's helped by the intensity of the marvellous performances of Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield. It is a very good and thought provoking film, that leaves me wondering about the rights and wrongs of Rick and Dennis.

I think most of America was impacted in at least some capacity by the 2008 economic crisis/crash. Obviously, the housing market was hit the hardest and really at the forefront of the situation. 99 Homes tells the story of a single father who still lives with his mother in his childhood home having to deal with an eviction and the unexpected events that follow.

99 Homes is a solid film. It has two of the best actors in the business right now with Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield. It's actually surprisingly how many people don't realize how good these two are. Both known primarily for the comic book roles respectively, but they have both down some tremendous indie work as well. The film does a good job of using both of their strengths and playing off each other to create a very intelligent screenplay. Shannon is perfect for this role, but in some ways he's also not. He's great at playing antagonistic characters but in this case its almost impossible to have any sympathy for his character. It makes for an unrealistic dynamic. The film never bored me, in fact I was engaged throughout the story, but I think at times it just became too unrealistic.

Garfield's character's arc was in particular the most unbalanced. It took a lot for me to get passed the fact that he gets hired by the same guy who evicted his home, but the actors made it intriguing enough for me to push it off to the side for awhile. But when you continue to build Garfield's character up to places that just aren't believable, it can take you out of the film. I think you could argue that the 'low' for Garfield just wasn't low enough for me to feel the heights of his 'highs'. It's one of the things Scorsese does so well is create arcs for characters that never feel hyper- realistic.

Laura Dern is also in the movie and does a fantastic job as Garfield's mother. She is the emotional weight that the film needed and brings his character back to the real world when it got too exaggerated. The film will definitely pull on your heart strings at times, especially when you see all sorts of people being ripped from their homes. I just think the structure of the story was unbalanced at times with arcs being a bit too unrealistic.

+Garfield & Shannon's dynamic

+Dern's emotional pull

+Heartbreaking story that's close to American's hearts

-Unrealistic at times

-Low wasn't low enough for Garfield

7.0/10

Micheal Shannon really controls the screen when he's on it. He plays villain well, especially well in this film, showing both sides of the coin.

99 Homes expresses how everyone was effected by the economy drop and how using the excuse of keeping afloat as a way to let doing what you have to do corrupt you.

99 homes is about the corruption of Dennis Nash, played by Andrew Garfield as he does what he has to do to get back his home for his mom and his child, after it being taken away from by Rick Carver, played by Micheal Shannon. Ironically Dennis goes to work for the enemy becoming the very person that put him in this situation.

You can't help to be emotional about 99 Homes, it's a movie about a period in history but it's so recent, you either are or know someone who has a story similar. Attacking such current events add to the drama and the tension of the movie.

It was interesting to watch this narration unfold and well acted by Micheal Shannon and Andrew Garfield. Very good watch.