99 Homes

For most of the running time, 99 HOMES is an exemplary thriller. It's always a delight when you find a film detailing a subject matter that's not been covered very much in film before and the financial crash of 2008 is the topic here, in particularly the glut of ill-conceived sub-prime mortgages in America that led to the worldwide recession. The film follows the fortunes of a real estate broker who makes a living from evicting people from their homes.

It's an electrifying premise and one that's superbly directed by Ramin Bahrani who brings a documentary-style realism to his work. Certainly the camera-work is fantastic, often hand held and getting into the faces of the actors so that you feel close up and involved with the situations. However, the real ace up the sleeve is the casting of Michael Shannon as the criminal broker; he gives a performance of reptilian magnitude as an amoral money-hunter and he's simply magnificent. I loved this guy in BOARDWALK EMPIRE and he continues to go from strength to strength here.

The eyes and ears of the viewer is played by Andrew Garfield, less impressive in a more subtle part. Garfield isn't bad when he gets the opportunity - he was fine in THE SOCIAL NETWORK - and he's more than believable as the desperate young man in this. Laura Dern and Clancy Brown flesh out the rest of the cast. The film is by turns intense, awkward, moving, and exciting, but always engrossing and not to mention gripping. The only misstep is a rather silly sub-plot in which Garfield tries to hide his work from his family, which feels rather irrelevant (if he's putting food on the table, what does it matter?). The other problem is the trite Hollywood ending; for a film that's exemplified gritty realism throughout, to cop out in this way is a real joke. Other than those problems, it's fine.

The movie could have been a bit more joyful I think towards the end and I didn't care for the mother's enmeshed relationship with her son. I didn't see much wrong with the house that was purchased for his mother and son. I realize the message is about be nice to those who are being evicted. Although the reality is there are some pretty s***** people who are irresponsible and who are bad tenants and there are squatters. The movie doesn't tell the whole picture of what really goes on. It's not black and white. In other words being a successful realtor or wealthy person does not mean you are the bad guy necessarily. The other side of the coin is that not all people who are being evicted are good people.

The movie started off strong... great characters ... and good performances The last 20min the movie just started taken a turn for the worst .... Made no sense.

The movie starts out well, and the first eviction scene will leave you shaking in your boots imagining your family and belongings getting foreclosed and tossed into the street. I can't think of another film that focuses on the eviction process so intensely.

You're better skipping the end of the movie (after the scene with the old man). The last forty minutes of the film are not satisfying at all, and just gets dumb with characters acting more and more ridiculously. In the beginning of the movie, many of the characters act over the top for the sake of dramatic tension, but it it gets to be too much towards the end.

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