Review:
"99 Homes"
Release Date: Oct. 9, 2015
Rating: R Running Time: 112 minutes Set during the housing crash of the late 2000s, director Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes unfolds as a timeless cautionary tale about the true cost of borrowing heavily to secure a better today against the uncertainty of tomorrow. The Amazing Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield gets himself into all sorts of trouble when he fights to save his family home from foreclosure. He goes to work for the realtor responsible for his eviction, a slimy opportunist played with brutal conviction by Michael Shannon. The more money Garfield makes evicting cash-strapped families and violating housing rules and regulations, the more he’s willing to compromise himself in the name of his mother (Laurie Dern) and preteen son (Noah Lomax). 99 Homes harrowing depicts the corruption of one’s man’s soul through the exploitation of the weak and defenseless. Bahrani takes aim at the financial institutions whose relaxed mortgage standards contributed to the recession that began in December 2007. He especially paints Shannon as the face of those who got rich—or richer—during the recession because they worked the system to benefit from other people’s financial misery. In all fairness, though, Shannon raises some very good points about the need to practice fiscal restraint, especially when times are good. Because we all know that the good times only last so long. Robert Sims Aired: Oct. 8, 2015 Web site: http://www.99homesmovie.com/ |
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