99 Homes is an absolutely captivating film that engages, thrills, and delivers two first class performances from Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon. Shannon, in particular, deserves special recognition for another spectacular role—his third since 2008’s Revolutionary Road (a masterpiece which gets better with each viewing) and 2011’s Take Shelter (his finest leading role to date, in one of 2011’s best films). Here Shannon delivers a powerfully compelling performance, commanding attention in every scene with nothing but the highest quality of acting—confirming once more that, when placed under the right direction, Shannon is one of the decade’s best actors. Even without Shannon’s performance, 99 Homes remains a strong film—delivering a thoroughly engaging plot and solid performances, including Andrew Garfield’s most emotionally satisfying role.
99 Homes begins with an off-screen suicide, its aftereffects observed by Florida real estate operator Rick Carver (Michael Shannon). Carver makes a wealthy living off evicting others from their homes, his latest target choosing death before shame. After dealing with the suicide’s ramifications, Carver moves to his next eviction stop—the home of unemployed father Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), who lives with his son and mother (Laura Dern). Nash is a talented construction worker, having worked his ass off to make an honest living and pay off his loans--yet thanks to the 2008-2010 real estate crash, all it’s brought is an eviction notice from the bank.
Carver and his sheriff henchmen come to evict Nash in an incredibly tense and all too realistic scene. Viewers can just feel the wave of stress-inducing panic wash over Nash as Carver explains what the construction worker dreads most: being publicly evicted—in front of his neighbors—from his generational family home. Nash and his mother try everything to prevent their home’s foreclosure: showcasing anger, fear, confusion, and embarrassment as they vainly try reasoning and (when it doesn’t work) begging. While already intense, the scene hits greatness with its uniquely neutral handling of both sides. Carver (who I will discuss in greater detail further down) is a greedy and insensitive man, yet intelligent enough to hide such feelings towards his evictors—handling the situation in an entirely realistic and professional fashion. This isn’t Snidely Whiplash evicting the Nash family, as both Carver and the sheriffs handle the situation professionally, levelheaded, and with complete rationale. Both the evictors and evictees feel all too realistically portrayed—“the bank is evicting you Mr. Nash, I’m simply their representative” Carver collectively explains. Carver is carrying out exactly what he’s paid to do, with the only apparent villainy being the inevitable enforcement of a thankless job.
This is fascinating stuff to open on. Lesser actors could have easily unbalanced the scene’s ideal neutrality, yet Shannon, Garfield and Dern deliver with first-rate performances to make such scene remarkably effective. 99 Homes goes from great to better when in an intriguing turn of events, Nash (who ends up impressing Carver) is hired by Carver to directly work for him, the very man who evicted Nash in the first place…I repeat, fascinating stuff.
99 Homes is the first instance I thoroughly enjoyed an Andrew Garfield performance. To put it bluntly, his previous performances have always come across as needlessly whiny (i.e. The Social Network, The Amazing Spider-Man, etc…)—here, for once, Garfield’s overemotional acting feels appropriate. Nash is a step-up from Garfield’s previous teenage roles, playing a hardworking young adult trying to provide for his mother and son. To become Carver’s lackey is hardly an easy decision, but what other choice does Nash have? The man’s back is to the wall: laborious work rewarded with a knife to the back from his bank and justice system—forced to take his son and mother away from their beloved home and live in a dingy motel alongside many other evictees. His search for an honest job proves fruitless in Florida’s poor economy. Simple scenes such as Nash getting gasoline for job searching become painful to watch under his dire circumstances—the camera notably focused on the gas price steadily increasing. Nash tries remaining strong for his family’s sake, yet the desperation in his voice is clear as day. Before falling asleep he tells his mom in a hopeful tone, “I’ll fix everything, believe me.” Empty promises, useful only in providing slight assurance for a better night’s sleep. I don’t think anyone can blame the man for selling his soul.
Soon Nash’s role is reversed, secretly becoming the evictor his family and motel neighbors despise. The eviction scenes are very rough to watch (still handled in a realistic quality), particularly when Nash must foreclose on a very confused, elderly widow. Guilt weights on Nash like a ton of bricks, yet the benefits (aka $$$) is far beyond what he’s ever made before—allowing Nash to more than provide for himself and his family (even buy back his old home). Nash’s decision here—as with most of the film’s decisions—is a grey one. His job may not be ethical—and at times, even borderline illegal—but it is stable, profitable, and a way to keep his family under a roof. When comparing to his previous status of being poor, jobless in a very unstable economy, and offering uncertainty for his family’s (particularly his son’s) future, the ethical choice becomes far more difficult. Such a straining dilemma causes Nash to get highly emotional, with one lovely shot displaying Nash’s reflection submerged in his swimming pool, signifying his drowning under the pressure. The film’s reasonably difficult situation, in addition to Garfield’s maturity in role, prevents Garfield’s acting from becoming annoying or frustrating—instead giving it an engaging, genuine, and sympathetic portrayal.
99 Homes’ greatest triumph is Rick Carver, by far 2015’s most fascinating anti-villain. A top-notch antagonist both shrewdly manipulative and ambitiously greedy, Carver is also a complex, multidimensional character with a highly compelling argument. So compelling in fact, that even when I know he’s doing wrong, his explanations make it seem reasonable. “I used to put people in homes before the bubble crash” Carver explains to Nash, “Now I evict them.” He tells how his father was an honest hard worker, yet after seriously injuring himself, “wasn’t given enough medical insurance to pay for a wheelchair!...I’m not going to have what happened to my father happen to me.” After Carver explains to Nash a reselling loophole, Nash asks “is this stealing?” to which Carver replies, “you {Nash} took a large sum from the bank and never paid it off. Tell me who the real thief is.” One gets the feeling Carver’s simply defending his actions, being the greed is good type who makes money through ruthless and exploitative methods. Nonetheless, Carver does make some solid and rational points: his methods have made him and his family rich and successful, where Nash’s honest living has barely kept his family afloat—“They build homes, I own homes” Carver states where comparing himself to the building companies Nash worked for.
Yet despite being very prosperous, Carver’s life is far from blissful, with 99 Homes brilliantly handling the realistic consequences of Carver’s ruthless actions. Carver may live a luxurious lifestyle, but there’s a heavy price: his callous actions leaving a lot of evictees pissed off. At home his family constantly receive angry phone calls spurting profanes and threats, to the point where they’ve moved on multiple occasions. At work Carver carries a licensed firearm for protection, revealing to Nash bite marks on his leg from when an aggressive Rottweiler was sicked on him. His job is stressful and dangerous, to the point where Carver can’t take his wife and kids out to dinner without looking over his shoulder. The struggles caused by the real estate business create an unusual bond between Carver and Nash. There’s an enjoyable scene where the two vent their problems while lying on the docks—cracking jokes and giving each other pointers, almost like drinking buddies. The two vastly different characters have a fascinating frenemy relationship, which the film concludes on a surprisingly satisfying note.
99 Homes most memorable scene is when Carver explains in passionate detail the reasoning behind his actions. The scene’s effectiveness has everything to do with Michael Shannon’s powerful performance. Where a lesser actor could have made Carver appear vile and corrupt, Shannon creates a fleshed out character full of expressive emotion, witty black comedy and a surprisingly compelling argument towards his greedy actions.
With the first two-thirds creating an effective buildup, I worried 99 Homes would lose traction in an unsatisfying last third. Yet despite a few forced moments—easily forgivable in the long run—the film ends on a satisfying and thoughtfully ambiguous note. 99 Homes is a fascinating success: being powerful, relatable, grounded, three-dimensional, beautifully acted, and thought-provoking in its grey morality. It’s Andrew Garfield’s best performance to date, Michael Shannon’s best since Take Shelter, and one of 2015’s best films.