99 Homes (2014)

A recently unemployed single father struggles to get back his foreclosed home by working for the real estate broker who is the source of his frustration.

Director:

Ramin Bahrani

Writers:

Ramin Bahrani (story), Ramin Bahrani

Stars:

Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 12 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Shannon	...	Rick Carver
Douglas M. Griffin	...	Officer Dudura
Randy Austin	...	Sheriff Anderon
Carl Palmer	...	Sheriff Carl
Andrew Garfield	...	Dennis Nash
James Brown	...	Elliot
Luke Sexton	...	Crew Leader
Noah Lomax	...	Connor Nash
Alex Aristidis	...	Alex Greene (as Alex Aristidis Perdikis)
Tim Guinee	...	Frank Greene
Tabler	...	Lawyer Bailey (as John Tabler)
Garrett Kruithof	...	Court Clerk
Richard Holden	...	Judge
Deneen Tyler	...	Bailiff
Albert C. Bates	...	Derek (as Albert Bates)

Storyline

Around the world everyone knows that honest hard work gets you nowhere. In sunny Orlando, Florida, construction worker Dennis Nash learns this the hard way when he is evicted from his home by a charismatic, gun-toting real-estate broker, Rick Carver. Humiliated and homeless, Nash has no choice but to move his mom and nine-year old son into a shabby, dangerous motel. All is lost. Until an unexpected opportunity arises for Nash to strike a deal with the devil - he begins working for Carver in a desperate attempt to get his home back. Carver seduces Nash into a risky world of scamming and stealing from the banks and the government; he teaches Nash how the rich get richer. Living a double life, Nash hides his new boss and job from his family. He rises fast and makes real money; he dreams bigger. But there is a cost. On Carver's orders, Nash must evict honest families from their homes - just as it happened to him. Nash's conscience starts tearing him apart... but his son needs a home. In a...

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Plot Keywords:

motel | cheating | ethics | theft | promise | 

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Taglines:

Greed is the only game in town.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language including some sexual references, and a brief violent image

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 October 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

99 Casas

Filming Locations:

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$32,253, 27 September 2015, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$1,410,915, 22 November 2015

Company Credits

Production Co:

Broad Green Pictures, Hyde Park Entertainment, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Ramin Bahrani used a 24mm lens for close-ups of Andrew Garfield as it gave greater depth as to what was showing on his face.

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Goofs

Simple admissions of guilt someone in a stressful situation is not going to cause the police to immediately arrest you. Nash was facing an armed man who clearly wasn't bent upon self injury or perhaps harming others. Even if he "admitted" his alleged guilt in a criminal matter, the police would have required more evidence (such as the event had actual occurred) before they could arrest him.

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Quotes

Rick Carver: 1000 homes: you know how much money we're talking of...?
Dennis Nash: What's my cut?
Rick Carver: Don't worry; I take care of you.
Dennis Nash: No Rick, I understand the commission is six per cent; so what's my cut?
Rick Carver: I'll give you 5% of my cut.
Dennis Nash: 10%.
Rick Carver: Six - and a hand job.
[holds up palm of hand]
Rick Carver: No callouses. You'll probably pull in somewhere between 200 to 300 K. More than you made in your...
[Nash interrupts]
[...]

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Connections

References Cinderella (1950)

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Soundtracks

Life Passed Me By
Written by Patrick McGarey and Tricia Roscoe
Performed by Super Stereo
Courtesy of Fervor Records

User Reviews

Very well acted, but with a couple of distracting elements

I saw this at TIFF 2014 where it seemed to be received pretty positively.

Kudos to those involved with casting as every actor/actress, from the leading Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon, right down to those who were only in one or two scenes, did a really good job. There were a lot of confrontational emotions in this movie and the actors/actresses did a great job of getting me to empathize with their characters. I had a hard time believing that Laura Dern's young-looking character was Garfield's character's mother, but she acted well.

I felt that Bahrani struck a good balance between showing the audience Garfield's character's life with his family VS his professional life.

I found the music throughout the movie to be pretty appropriate. The music chosen for each scene complimented the dramatic tone of what was happening.

There were two things about the movie that bothered me enough to pull me out of the tense drama temporarily: (1) There were a couple of big coincidental moments (one of which is directly related to the final scene) that seemed a bit too fate-like. For a movie with the very real backdrop of the US housing market crash, and such believable characters, these unrealistic occurrences seemed out of place. (2) At one point, a montage format is used to quickly show Garfield's character go through a bunch of different exchanges with other characters. This quick cutting from scenario to scenario is a missed opportunity to fully immerse us viewers in a couple of heart-wrenching moments. As a result, the mixed emotions that I recognized I was supposed to feel weren't as strong as they could have been.

Overall, this drama was well done. I think it could have been better in some areas, but it was still a nice watch.