99 Homes review: homes upon the scrapheap

You couldn't have told a story like 99 Homes at any other point in the past 100 years. Michael Shannon, all malevolent charisma and cynical intelligence, plays Rick Carver, a vicious businessman capitalising on the misfortunes of defaulting homeowners in bland, sun-blasted Florida.

A court-appointed agent, Carver arrives with the bailiffs, turfs the unfortunate family on the street, and goes on to pocket a share of the eventual marked-down sale.

Such mass repossessions happened in the Great Depression. The difference here is that every swirl and eddy of the financial whirlwind has been generated by convulsions in the property market. “Don’t get emotional about real estate,” Carver tells his protege at one point. Wise advice. These brick boxes have released furies.

Ramin Bahrani, realist director of Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, has worked hard at rendering all the queasy details of these uncomfortable transactions.

We begin with Carver – whose e-cigarette carries its own clinical malevolence – arriving at the home of hard- working Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield). Like others we will meet, Dennis can’t believe that the moment will come when a default leads to eviction. He believes that we own a home in the same way that we own a foot or a liver. Carver’s people soon disabuse him of that notion. His property is dumped on the lawn as neighbours do their best to politely look the other way.

Some days later, Nash encounters Carver again and agrees to help clean up a sabotaged property. Before long, he has become his right- hand man and – pulling on a sympathetic face that is only partly disingenuous – sets to helping out with further evictions.

Both actors are terrific. The rigorous research reaps on- screen dividends. Unfortunately, Dennis’s descent into Faustian comprise is a little too rapid and a little too untroubled. One moment he’s avoiding suspicious eyes in a cheap motel. The next he’s perusing mighty domains from a helicopter.

Those false notes tidied away, 99 Homes remains a searing immorality tale. This could happen to you.