After Ramin Bahrani impressed me with The White Tiger, I decided to check out 99 Homes. Whilst I don't like this one as much, it's still an interesting film.
99 Homes follows Dennis Nash, a construction worker, who takes up a job working for Rick Carver, a ruthless real estate broker, who evicted Nash and his family from his home in the first place.
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. Bahrani does well setting up the characters and story but personally I found myself getting less invested by the end. It lacked that gripping feeling a drama should have.
The performances are excellent from everyone involved. Michael Shannon is easily the best part of the film. His role as the corrupt Rick Carver is fascinating to watch and Shannon does a brilliant job playing this character. I've been following Andrew Garfield for a long time now and it amazes me the variety of roles he takes on. He delivers yet another great performance here as a man struggling to provide for his family. Laura Dern is also great as Garfield's mother in the film.
Bahrani is able to get great performances from these actors and directs some emotionally upsetting scenes with skill. I wish the second half was executed in a better way. It began to get predictable and the ending was a bit of a letdown but 99 Homes is an interesting insight into the corruption of this field of work and how people profit off it.
99 Homes follows Dennis Nash, a construction worker, who takes up a job working for Rick Carver, a ruthless real estate broker, who evicted Nash and his family from his home in the first place.
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. Bahrani does well setting up the characters and story but personally I found myself getting less invested by the end. It lacked that gripping feeling a drama should have.
The performances are excellent from everyone involved. Michael Shannon is easily the best part of the film. His role as the corrupt Rick Carver is fascinating to watch and Shannon does a brilliant job playing this character. I've been following Andrew Garfield for a long time now and it amazes me the variety of roles he takes on. He delivers yet another great performance here as a man struggling to provide for his family. Laura Dern is also great as Garfield's mother in the film.
Bahrani is able to get great performances from these actors and directs some emotionally upsetting scenes with skill. I wish the second half was executed in a better way. It began to get predictable and the ending was a bit of a letdown but 99 Homes is an interesting insight into the corruption of this field of work and how people profit off it.