'99 Homes'

In cinemas September 25th!

When people use the term “edge of your seat” it usually refers to an action heavy movie with no real plot and in my opinion is poorly used, really they just mean excitement whereas I think the term is more about gripping tension, so when I say '99 Homes' leaves you on the edge of your seat I really mean it. ​
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'99 Homes' concerns Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) a multi-skilled construction worker who thanks to the economic collapse has found himself all but unemployed. Enter the villainous Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) who from his first appearance we see is an amoral opportunist whose every action if not illegal is certainly treading a very fine line. Carver is a real-estate broker and he’s here to evict Nash on behalf of the bank who have taken possession of his home after several missed payments, again the morality of which seems a little questionable.

Nash is forced out onto the street, moving his family into a motel and looking out at an unsure future. Upset and angry he goes to give Carver a piece of his mind and after a violent altercation somehow ends up being offered a job, much to his own surprise. Thus begins Nash’s descent into Carver’s world as they become unlikely friends and Nash climbs the corporate ladder at Carver's side and Nash’s moral code is stretched to it’s limit.

The film is truly tense, we meet a host of characters all of whom are distraught and desperate and approaching the worst day of their lives, as Nash becomes the reluctant villain of the piece and it honestly feels like anything could break this world at any moment. It’s a story of corruption, manipulation and greed on a very personal level, like a small scale 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. Carver has made a niche for himself exploiting the broken system that is the American economy circa 2010 and on some level you kind of sympathize with him, especially once he explains how he ended up forced into this position himself by his own circumstances, actually making him a more rounded character than DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort. 

And I don’t make that comparison to Wolf lightly, '99 Homes' really is gripping. It’s not a perfect movie, Nash dancing around the moral dilemma that is his new life drags on long enough for you to wish you could reach into the screen and slap some sense into him, and stylistically it doesn’t have the pop that something like Wolf or 'Nightcrawler' (another good comparison) does. 

In fact those two comparisons are probably how I’d describe the film, it reaches for, though doesn’t quite achieve, either the pure entertainment factor of 'The Wolf of Wall Street' or the gut wrenching dark tension of 'Nightcrawler' but blends the two extremely well.

Personally I recommend it, and if my comparing it to two films you possibly didn’t see isn’t helpful let me just say that it is an edgy, engaging, seriously tense dramatic thriller that whilst a little slow is never boring.

Review by Kristian Mitchell-Dolby.

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