Review of Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield's 99 HOMES - Sundance 2015
Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield are two actors that you really can't go wrong with. They are both incredibly talented. Bringing them together to star in a film seems like it would be pure magic, and in the film 99 Homes, it is. Both actors bring their A-game for this movie and give us some of their best and most compelling work to date.
99 Homes is an intense drama that kept me on the edge of my seat. It deals with some heavy subject matter, set in 2008 during the housing market crash in which many people were losing their homes. The story centers on a man named Dennis Nash (Garfield), who is having a hard time making ends meet due to lack of work. Even though he's a hard working dad with the best intentions for his family, he can't stop his home from going into foreclosure. He's kicked out of his home and forced to take his family to live in a shady hotel that's full of people who have found themselves in the same situation. As Dennis is trying to find a way to get his home back and make money, he ironically starts working for the man who forced him to leave his home, Mike Carver (Shannon). Carver pushes Nash's ethics and values to the limits as Nash is now the person who is kicking others out of their homes.
It's devastating watching these families being forced out of their homes. They are old, young, with children and without. There is absolutely nothing they can do to save themselves. Carver, Nash, and the system basically make it impossible. I've never lost a home, as I've never owned one to lose, but I do know what it's like to be in a hopeless situation where things are out of your control, and you can't stop them. It's unfortunately a part of life, and certain things are set up in a way where we, the people, will almost always lose no matter what we do, or how hard we fight. It's a sad truth.
The movie filled me with anger because you see just how easy it really is to be screwed over. In that sense it was a hard movie to watch. That's a compliment to the movie in a weird way because the story was told so damn well! Had it been a poorly made film, I wouldn't have felt those emotions. It's great when a movie evokes the emotions in its audience members that it intends too, and you aren't distracted by terrible acting, directing and dialogue.
Even though 99 Homes is kind of depressing, it's still worth watching, especially for the performances. These actors bring their characters to life perfectly. Of course, it's also always a joy to watch Shannon bring the hardcore intensity.
The movie was written and directed Ramin Bahrani, and here's the synopsis:
Set amidst the backdrop of the 2008 housing market catastrophe, Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), a hard-working and honest man, can’t save his family home despite his best efforts. Thrown to the streets with alarming precision by real estate shark Mike Carver (Michael Shannon), Dennis, out of work and luck, is given a unique opportunity—to join Carver’s crew and put others through the harrowing ordeal done to him in order to earn back what’s his. Delicately training his eye on the rigorous details, the reliably astute Ramin Bahrani imbues his characters with icy complexity to achieve his compassionate portrait of a man whose integrity has become ensnared within an all-too-relevant American crisis. With precision and care, Bahrani’s provocative character study applies all the cinematic tools at his disposal to explore the ethical dilemma at the heart of man’s struggle to reach higher—by whatever means necessary.