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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. It's a film worth seeing just for the story, but with the superb performances, it makes a film you need to see.
Films like these tend to not interest me but seeing Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield together got me excited. 99 Homes is a devastating look at the housing market crash that took place in 2008 and shows the corruption and greed that takes place within this business. Scenes where we see people being evicted out of their homes are painful to watch. Bahrani executes these scenes by not overly dramatising them but rather giving us a gritty and unfiltered look at these situations which I found really effective. The opening alone is fantastic as we get a long take eviction sequence that sets the tone of the film well.
Casting
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. Everyone should see "99 Homes," if not for the amazing filmmaking then to better learn how banks caused the housing market crash that devastated so many Americans, and the greed and profiteering that followed. It’s a heart-breaking, authentic insight into the devastation caused by the 2008 housing market crash.
And went on to screen at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2014. As well as the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2014. Shortly after, Broad Green Pictures acquired U.S distribution rights to the film.
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NEW YORK – Trenchant, didactic and unflinching, “99 Homes” also is an example of profoundly moral filmmaking. Instead, the action feels reactionary and the emotional core boils down to “Can you believe they’re doing this? ” rather than something more profound in exploring homelessness.
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. Michael Shannon is great as he portrays Rick Carver as the present-day Gordon Gekko.
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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. 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.
Having witnessed the malicious calls Rick often gets, he decides to move out of the motel room immediately by selling the family home and buying a much more luxurious home instead. Despite unethical and immoral decisions by the characters, everything takes place within a moral worldview. There are also gratuitous references to sexual acts, slurs, drunkenness, and violence. Acclaimed indie filmmaker Ramin Bahrani, who regularly and bravely focuses on heartbreaking trials of life while keeping his stories rooted in humanity, turns in some of his finest work here.
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Garfield is fine although his character's obsession with his childhood home gets into the way. It also doesn't make sense that he couldn't simply move to another motel. Heck, he could move his family temporarily into one of their foreclosed properties for two weeks.
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update. Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. After moving Lynn and Connor into a motel, Nash is forced to do some quick thinking. So when a confrontation over stolen tools leads to an offer to work for Carver, Nash grabs at it — even if his first task turns out to be shoveling backed-up sewage out of a foreclosed house.
But, will he able to live with himself now that he's doing to others what was so callously done to him? While there is an immediacy and current relevancy to the story being told here, at its heart is a rather strong moral argument against what the "American Dream" has become . I was reminded of Oppenheimer's famous quote about the atomic bomb, except with a few words changed.
Characters smoke cigarettes regularly (one character also smokes a "vape"), and there's a scene of heavy drinking and cigar smoking at a party. Given that the film stars The Amazing Spider-Man's Andrew Garfield, teens may be interested. The greatest asset for the Friedmanite American is their overwhelming individuality, which is often reflected in the great lengths to which their personalities grow . But it is not so much a cult to the personality what these Friedmanites gain; it is, instead, a cult to this person’s achievements, which become their personality — if with achievement we understand net worth.
The movie is trying to inject some nobility into Dennis artificially and push a moral structure into the movie's framework. It would be simpler to see Dennis slowly accept his immorality. The final immorality against Frank Greene would be more compelling and more natural.
Rick Carver, the real-estate agent who evicted them, offers Dennis a job fixing up foreclosed homes he owns. Dennis becomes Carver’s full-time protégé and ends up being the one enforcing evictions. His increasing responsibility becomes lucrative, but it’s not without employing unethical and immoral business practices exploiting legal loopholes. One day, business gets too personal when Dennis knows the family he must force out of their home.
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