99 Homes: Movie Review

Ramin Bahrani’s “99 Homes” tells a story not often seen on the big screen, that of evicted families. Although centered on one specific family, we see numerous people forced out of their homes and we never know exactly how they will react. The film’s title should give you a good idea about the number we are talking about. Set in Florida (although not filmed in the sunshine state), we see all types of homes, which one character refers to as big boxes that we shouldn’t get emotionally invested with.

Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) is a hard working construction worker that has just been laid off. To make matters worse, Dennis, his mother Lynn (Laura Dern) and his son Connor (Noah Lomax) have just been evicted from their home. The Nash family is forced to move into a run-down motel where other families who are in the same boat reside as well. Lynn wants Dennis and Conner to move to Tampa with her so they can stay with family, but Dennis does not want to take Conner away from his friends and school.

When Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), the greedy real estate broker that evicted Nash and his family offers Dennis a job, he knows can’t turn down the money. Dennis starts off with odd jobs, fixing properties, installing cabinets and appliances. Next Rick has Dennis help him out with con jobs, like removing air conditioning units from homes so they can collect money from the government. All of this leads up to Dennis evicting people from their homes the same way it was done to him. All Dennis wants to do is buy back his family home, yet he keeps his mother and son in the dark about how he is earning his money.

“99 Homes” is really good and moves along at a nice pace. The performances from Garfield and Shannon are quite strong but it was the look of the film that I found quite surprising. The way the homes and neighborhoods are shot make them stand out. We see such a contrast in the homes and you can get a sense of the type of people that lived in them, even when they are empty. There isn’t a whole lot of marketing for “99 Homes” but I do hope people get a chance to check it out.

By: Marc Ferman