– Film Review by Cate Marquis –
“99 Homes” is riveting drama about 2008 real estate collapse
Stars: 4 out of 5
“99 Homes” is a raw, truth-telling, moving drama set in the home foreclosure melt-down of the 2008 Great Recession. Rather than focusing on Wall Street and politics, “99 Homes” tells its story in human terms, from the in-the-streets experience of those losing their homes and real estate agents carrying out the foreclosures, capturing the frightening tone of the era while spotlighting what has not changed in the intervening years.
Michael Shannon is electrifying as real estate agent Mike Carver, whose specialty is foreclosures since the economic debacle. Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) is a hard-working construction worker, an honest man who is suddenly thrown out of work by the real estate collapse. Unemployed, Nash struggles to hold on to the home where he grew up, a modest ranch house in Florida where he still lives with his young son and widowed mother (Laura Dern), whom he supports. Despite being evicted by Carver, the desperate cash-strapped Nash. cannot say no when Carver suddenly offers him a job. It is a deal with the devil with surprising repercussions.
Carver is like a relentless machine, mowing down homeowners like a general on battlefield and with the same battle-hardened lack of remorse. The real estate agent’s attitude is illustrated in the opening scene, where police try to interview him after one homeowner commits suicide rather than be evicted. Carver suggests they ask the man’s wife for insights on what went wrong – Carver is just there as a representative of the court. The scene is chilling, but also illustrates it is not his decision, he is executioner, not judge, in this human tragedy.
In the course of the film, there is a kind of battle for Nash’s soul being fought, as he tries to keep his footing in the shifting moral landscape the economic crash creates.
Director Ramin Bahrani may not be a well known name for most audiences but those who saw his previous film “Goodbye Solo” know his skill for storytelling and capturing raw human feelings. “99 Homes” is a considerably more mainstream film, with familiar faces in the cast. However, the director’s subtle skill in human relationships in a larger context helps captures this particular pivotal moment in the country’s recent history, when seemingly far-off financial dealings suddenly crash down on everyone’s streets. The focus in on the human experience, and we get beneath the skin of all the characters, good or bad, as well as reaching to heart of the social dysfunction that led them to this place.
“99 Homes” is a film of shades of gray and shifting sands. The good guys/bad guys and clear-cut moral ground we see at the start begins to blur around the edges in the face of the need for survival in this realistic world, as Bahrani pulls back the many layers of each character.
Shannon gives a tour-de-force performance, riveting us to the seat every time he is on screen. His force of personality, and brutal honesty about what he is doing, has a strange seductive effect on Nash – and on us. He does not try to tell us what he is doing is right, only that given the circumstances it is inevitable someone will – a much more chilling thought. In one riveting scene, Carver talks about his childhood and the forces that made him, a scene so gripping it is worth the ticket price alone.
All the cast are good in this excellent, intelligent drama. Garfield turns in a strong performance as well, slowly losing his bearings will trying to focus on his goal of getting back his family home. Laura Dern is effecting as his mother, a gentle and innocent soul who acts as his moral anchor. Nash is also grounded by his son and by another homeowner he meets, an honest man like himself who is also facing eviction.
The acting is terrific, but the script, the editing and the Florida setting are all used to great effect by the director. Bahrani effectively blends scenes of economic desperation and ordinary people with scenes of local powers making deals where they come out ahead in the disastrous situation. We see streets of little suburban ranch house alternating with luxury homes on golf course – either of which can be foreclosures.
“99 Homes” is a powerful, smart must-see drama that recreates the 2008 economic collapse while subtly, indirectly pointing to where the danger still lurks just below the surface.
