99HomesRemember when the Occupy Wall Street movement went global? And when we were constantly being bombarded by stories about the institutionalized fraud and scams perpetrated by the big bank mortgage/foreclosure industry and their independent contractor cronies?

How is that the ire of “the 99%” amounted to nothing?

When Senator Bernie Sanders said Wall Street controls Congress, he was right on the money.

The film “99 Homes” effectively dramatizes the foreclosure market at the height of big bank’s greed, circa 2008. I believe it should be required viewing by all members of Congress and the White House.  Because, frankly, our  lawmakers need a reminder about what the 99% are still facing without proper banking regulations in place.

Starring Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield, “99 Homes”, released this month, explores how a father (Garfield) struggles to get back the home that his family was evicted from by working for the greedy real estate broker (Shannon) who’s the source of his frustration.

It’s a tightly directed film by Ramin Bahrani, who also wrote the screenplay with Amir Naderi. Laura Dern and Tim Guinee co-star with measured and heart wrenching performances.

My blood boiled as I watched it. Anyone who’s read my Big Bully Bank Case  posts will understand. Having been intimately aware of the subject matter, as a result of my extensive research for my case, I could feel my blood pressure skyrocket as I was once again subjected to the devastating truth of how pathetic our banking system is. The film touches on every aspect of the corrupt system.

Garfield’s character, Dennis Nash, loses his home after being told by his mortgage company to miss payments before they will consider refinancing. In the biz, it was called dual tracking, where one department tells the homeowner to deliberately miss payments while a different department is actively on track foreclosing on the homeowner. The bank then goes to court and, with the help of uninformed/corrupt judges, has the poor slug evicted, naming him a trespasser, in the process. In this case it’s Nash. He, along with his son, Connor, effectively played by Noah Lomax, and his mother Lynn (Laura Dern) are forced to move into a nearby motel that’s filled with other similarly affected families. On top of that, with the poor economy, Nash can’t find work in the construction business.

Without getting into too many spoilers, Nash has reason to again bump into realtor Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) who represented the bank during his eviction and he gets slowly sucked into the world of mortgage/foreclosure scams and fraud that is so deeply entrenched in the American banking system.

I was torn apart by the riveting performances of Garfield and Tim Guinee (also a displaced homeowner) as much as I was appreciative of Shannon’s nuanced take on his character of the real estate broker.

Director Ramin Bahrani has made an intensely dramatic film with undertones of a documentary about corruption so systemic and harmful that I would urge everyone to see it and once again rise up and make that Occupy Movement a thing that changes our country for the better.

More information HERE.

Article by Ginger Marin. To learn about her acting, visit Ginger Marin’s IMDB page.