Ramin Bahrani and Andrew Garfield on 99 Homes
People: Rahmin Bahrani
The writer-director of Man Push Cart returns with 99 Homes, another story about social justice and an economic system that he says creates Donald Trumps, rewards greed and fails to protect families
By Katherine Monk
After directing Man Push Cart a decade ago, the late great Roger Ebert described director Ramin Bahrani as one of the most important new voices in cinema, hailing his ability to see the outsider and sympathize with those silently struggling to find their way.
His low-budget dramatic debut focused on a former Pakistani rock star who ended up selling food on the streets of Manhattan, and his more recent At Any Price starring Zac Efron took on the reality of genetically modified crops and their effect on America’s family farms.
He is unapologetic about his interest in themes concerning social justice, but Bahrani’s most recent feature, 99 Homes, may be the most trenchant piece of social commentary he’s made so far as it brings us back to the crash of 2008, and the loud pop of the real estate bubble bursting in the face of American families.
Featuring Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) in the lead role of construction worker Dennis Nash, the viewer is quickly thrown into the oozing quicksand of the Florida housing market. Dennis loses his job on a building crew and can’t get work. He falls behind on his mortgage payments, and before long, he, his son and his mother (Laura Dern) are evicted from their home and forced to live in a fleabag motel.
“I was reading the headlines like everyone else,” says Bahrani. “And after I finished my last film, I thought this would be an interesting topic for a movie and started doing a lot of research.”
Bahrani headed down to Florida and spent weeks interviewing displaced families, sheriffs, real estate brokers and lawyers. He went to foreclosure court and watched as one family after another went through the system, pleading for patience and understanding, and failing every time.
“In foreclosure court, people’s fates are decided in sixty seconds flat,” says Bahrani, who was born and raised in Winston-Salem and educated at Columbia.
“I watched it happen. I went to motels where families lived in the shadow of Disneyworld and heard their stories and as I did the research, I realized it would be a fast-paced film, almost thriller-like, because of the Faust element.”
Bahrani is referring to the dynamic between Garfield’s blue-collar character, Dennis, and Michael Shannon’s real estate broker. When Dennis is given a shot at getting his house back by working for the man who tossed him on the street, he makes the devilish deal.
“The Faust story we go back to time and time again because it’s true to human nature,” he says. “But what made this more interesting to me is that Michael’s character is not that devilish, in a way. The system created him and we have to empathize with him, which makes people uncomfortable.”
At one point, Shannon’s character gives a memorable, and now-quoted speech, in which he essentially slams the one per cent, for getting filthy rich while being morally bankrupt:
“America doesn’t bail out the losers. America was built by bailing out winners… by rigging a nation — of the winners, by the winners, for the winners.”
The speech has been called Trump-like, and Bahrani understands why. “The system is creating people like Donald Trump: Winners and losers. We made this before Donald Trump even ran for office, but it shows you why he’s going to get votes. People sympathize with Michael’s character, too. He’s just a product of the system. But, typically, the world can only give birth to so many Iagos.”
Or Trumps, or Gordon Gekkos – the character from Oliver Stone’s Wall Street who declared “Greed is good,” and unintentionally inspired an intense worship of money and shoulder pads previously unseen in human history.
“At a certain point in the story, I don’t think people can distinguish right from wrong. And that’s interesting to me.”
Bahrani says forcing yourself to find empathy for a character you may not initially like is a rich part of the writing process. It can also be a window into your own soul.
“When you dig into a character and start to see yourself in them, it makes you wonder about things. Like when Michael’s character says homes are just boxes, and just commodities to be bought and sold, I can’t argue with that. But when Andrew and Laura say home is a community, a place of safety and memories, I can’t argue with that either. So as a filmmaker, you have to sit there and let the two positions butt heads.”
Bahrani says there’s no easy solution to any of the themes in the film, from the income gap to current legislation that puts families in the streets while rewarding the elite.
“It’s a global issue… but I don’t know many people who do have a positive feeling about the system. The movie is called 99 Homes and that’s a reference to the 99 per cent,” he says.
“Globally, it doesn’t matter what side of the political or cultural spectrum you are on, unless you are in the one per cent, or point one per cent, you are in that group. And we’re still living in a world where the heads of the major banks responsible for the banking scandals, the housing crisis and the economic crash that crippled the world are getting bonuses. We’re living in a system where those people did not go to jail,” says Bahrani.
“They were fined billions of dollars and made tenfold billion back on the backs of the world, and nobody went to jail. I’m living in a country where the heads of those banks become public servants, make decisions that are in favour of the banks, and then go back to work for the banks and collect more money after they have served we the people,” he says.
“I don’t need an MBA to know this is not correct.”
99 Homes is now open in select markets.
@katherinemonk
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