No.17 - 99 Homes (2010) 61 of 100

 

This film is essentially ‘The Big Short’ but at ground level. Shannon plays Rick Carver a real estate agent who buys up foreclosed houses and flips them for a profit. The system is gamed in his favour and he has local cops and judges in his pocket.

The film centres on his relationship with Dennis Nash, played by Andrew Garfield, who is a hard working single dad who lives with his son and his Mom, the implausibly lovely Laura Dern. Nash hasn’t paid his mortgage for a couple of months and is soon booted out of his family home by Carver and his gang of hired muscle. The Nash family is forced to decant to a motel and things get worse when he realises Carver’s men have stolen his tools.

Nash goes to confront Carver but fate steps in when a sewage leak threatens a property and Nash saves the day. Carver is impressed and takes Nash under his wing, showing him the various ways he works the system to get what he wants.

Initially Nash is on board with a ‘can’t beat ‘em so join ‘em’ mentality. Pretty soon Nash is doing more than maintenance work, carrying out evictions himself and defrauding the banks by stealing air conditioners and pool pumps that they will later sell back to them.

With the cycle of misery never ending Carver has a big contract on the horizon – if he can convince Clancy Brown he can handle a 100 home contract he’ll be moved up to the big leagues with a 1000 home deal. With 99 completed, will the last go smoothly? Probably not!

I enjoyed this film and it is prime Shannon. His character is malevolent and forceful but in many ways quite likeable. I think the character was poorly served by the plot though, as if he was so savvy, why is he taking on a potential enemy in the shape of Nash who he screwed over? The angle of him stealing air conditioners didn’t ring true either – there was so much easy money to be had, so why take the risk? I get that he’s greedy and thinks himself untouchable, it just seemed like poor logic from an otherwise focused businessman.

Andrew Garfield does OK as the troubled and conflicted Nash but he did tend to gurn and yell unconvincingly a lot. Shannon stands well above him in their shared scenes, but it was a decent two hander for the most part.

The film’s sympathies were rote large from the start with the unfairness of the system and the greed and recklessness of the banks highlighted at every turn. A lot of the evictees didn’t seem like actors and I wonder if they used real people a la ‘Up In the Air’ which did so for unemployed people.

The Steadicam shots employed made the film look like a documentary in places and it certainly looked realistic and grubby. I appreciate they had to go extreme for the drama but Carver’s actions, which led to his downfall seemed somewhat hard to believe given his savvy demeanour. That’s said, the film was an interesting parable on ethics, loyalty and doing the right thing.

The sad thing is that Nash will end up in a worse position than when he started and Carver will doubtlessly get his fingers smacked at worst. Welcome to capitalism!

When is Shannon-On? - 01.59

Outcome? - On the hook for fraud, but will probably get off.

Film 3/5

Shannon Stars 4/5