99 Homes (2015), R, ★★1/2

Listen to me, Spider-Man. You're in a real movie.

The house market is inconsistent and not as solid as in the past which creates angst and stress for real estate workers. However, in the process of evicting owners, real estate operators and repo men have to do their duty but maybe deep down inside, I mean, real deep down, they feel bad towards the evicted home owners as this puts a blockade in their lives financially and physically. This is a movie that experiences the situation placed on a former home owner dealing with the consequences of financial strain. However, the director wants to place you in that dark situation, and even though, it has a strong statement to say about that, the movie throw aways that solid piece of reality and puts the material down with a mixed message towards the last third of the movie.

Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), has been recently let go from his job as a construction worker in Orlando and is a single father. He and his son, Connor (Noah Lomax), his mother, Lynn (Laura Dern) and his hairdresser has been evicted from their home. The real estate operator, Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), is in charge of the eviction and police officers are also under employment under Rick. Dennis and his family is living in a crabby hotel room.

While he tries to get his tools, Dennis confronts Rick's men and Rick himself is impressed by his gumption. He hires Dennis to become his repairman and also his assistant to carry out evictions himself and sets up real estate schemes that exploit government and banking rules to struggling home owners' disadvantages. Dennis splurges and enjoys his life as he now is in the same position that Rick was when Rick evicted Dennis from home. However, he wants to accept large payments of money to buy back his home but Rick says to keep enough money for now as it is enough anyway. But, instead, Dennis buys a luxurious house and has his family suspicious.

I'm in charge. 

This is a supremely executed first half as we explore the modern economies of homeowners and the situations they face, no matter where they live. It is an outlook to the struggling American life of the lower and middle class. The movie starts off like that supporting the strong, constructed narrative of trying to pay back his home and live a normal life. However, it dials down into a predictable and contrived narrative of a man being the person with the riches and somehow involved in illegal activity. This is a cliche because the turn is when the family neglects of his illegal activity and is disappointed. It's a formulaic set-up to a familiar and rushed last third of the movie.

There are fine performances from the two leads. Andrew Garfield is in his solid prime since his performance from The Social Network. It is a nice solid adult performance of the human condition trying to make his way on par with the economy. Michael Shannon is quite villainous and creepy as the lead real estate owner but sometimes a bit cliched with his over-the-top shenanigans by corrupting the homeowners out of their money.

Two strong performances, however, they are two realistic people turned into two familiar characters we have seen from other movies and from other movies that include a downfall to a society and to other characters. It is strongly executed to witness the struggles of everyday society, however, its intelligence and compassion in the material wants to transforms us into the dark side of director Ramin Bahrani's drama. However, the dark side is lacking intelligence from its first half and has the elevated drama become more superficial than presented. It is a solid first half of the film but it needed to tighten the material up a little bit in its last third. It's sort of a rental.

**1/2