Ramin Bahrani makes a loud return with 99 Homes, his follow-up to the disappointingly received At Any Price. Taking his aim at the U.S. housing crisis, Bahrani tells a gripping story that extends out to a damning statement on American capitalism and the exceedingly wealthy one percent. It’s a big step towards the mainstream for Bahrani, boasting a terrific cast and a relevant, necessary subject. And even with a problematic final act, one threatening to sink the entire film, its dramatic strengths end up winning out.

From the first frames, Bahrani blatantly expresses his intentions to generate ire from viewers. Real estate shark Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) looks at a bathroom covered in blood with a body on the toilet. Carver came to evict the homeowner for defaulting on his mortgage, and the owner decided to take his own life rather than vacate. Carver doesn’t care; he tells police the man’s suicide is a selfish act, one that leaves the homeowner’s family to fend for themselves. Within minutes, Bahrani establishes the cruel, emotionless world of his film.

Carver’s next person to evict is Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), a construction worker down on his luck. With the housing market crashing, no one has any interest in building homes, meaning little to no construction work. Due to issues with the bank, Nash loses the family home, leaving his mother Lynn (Laura Dern) and son Connor (Noah Lomax) with nowhere to go. Eventually Rick and Dennis’ paths cross again, and Rick ends up hiring Dennis to help clean out vacated homes for him. Dennis resists the idea of working for the man who kicked him out of his home at first, but the high paychecks prove to be too tempting.

Bahrani’s point, along with co-writer Amir Naderi (taken from a story by Bahrani and Bahareh Azimi), is to show the way capitalism has morphed into something monstrous. Nash represents the average hard-working American earning their own success, while Carver symbolizes the way success now defines itself as profiting off the suffering of the less fortunate. Carver’s philosophy on life leaves no room for sentiment or emotions. Dennis continually finds ways to get his family home back, something Carver finds ridiculous. “They’re just boxes,” Carver says to Nash. Bahrani uses Nash and his family to keep the human story elements at the forefront, making Carver’s soulless statements look all the more horrifying.

Garfield does a great job as Nash, giving a believable and emotional performance, but the real highlight is Michael Shannon. Playing a character written as a total villain, Shannon exudes a level of charisma that, combined with having to say most of the film’s more memorable lines, actually makes Carver enjoyable to watch. And even though he’s a cruel, unsympathetic character, his motivations and back story are fleshed out to make his behavior understandable. Carver, like Nash, simply does what he can to survive and prosper, except one of them is willing to go much further than the other to ensure their security.

Sadly, Bahrani feels the need to up the ante of his dramatic stakes, using a major plot point in the latter half to shift things into thriller territory. As the intensity builds, or at least tries to, so does the unsubtle political commentary. It’s an unfortunate move because the last thing the film needs is more emphasis. For that reason the climax falls flat, a stale effort to go out strong turning into poorly misguided melodrama.

Bahrani’s 99 Homes is still a success, even if it’s a small one. Its great cast and effective drama, at least for the majority of the film, are undeniably compelling. If At Any Price is Bahrani’s failed attempt to break into the major leagues, 99 Homes corrects that mistake.

Originally published as part of our coverage for the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

The tag team of Bernard and CJ run wild on this episode as they talk about Denis Villeneuve’s new film, Sicario, as well as make sense of a blood-boiling argument Bernard had with a friend about the plausibility of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. Also, highlights from the roundtable interview Bernard had with Andrew Garfield, the star of Ramin Bahrani’s housing crisis drama 99 Homes. All that, plus our Indie Picks of the Week on this week’s exciting installment of the Indiecast!

Topics

• Indie Picks (3:34)
• Plausibility For Dummies (10:02)
• Sicario (29:22)
• Andrew Garfield (48:03)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

99 Homes TIFF Review
Sicario Review
Victoria TIFF Review
Jafar Panahi’s Taxi Review

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With Star Wars: The Force Awakens just on the horizon, Bernard, CJ, Dustin, and special guest (and giant Star Wars fanboy) Justin Boo go in-depth about the mass anticipation of the new film as well as the feverish passion of the millions of fans of the legendary franchise. Why is there such excitement for the new trilogy when the last one was such an abomination? Also, film critic Rob Trench joins CJ and Bernard to recap the Toronto International Film Festival, from the best to the worst to the fantastic films flying just under the radar. Plus, the return of our Indie Picks of the Week!

Topics

• Indie Picks (2:13)
• Star Wars Hype (15:00)
• TIFF Wrap-Up (45:12)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

The Fool Review
Me and Earl Review
TIFF Coverage

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After months of rumors and speculation, Marvel and Sony have finally come to an agreement on the Spider-Man franchise, which means that the friendly neighborhood web-head will be swinging his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the sound of millions of rabid fans freaking the hell out. Negotiations have purportedly been going on for several weeks (probably much longer than that), but former Sony president Amy Pascal stepping down just recently seems to have expedited the process.

Marvel announced the partnership tonight in a press release, which you can read below. There’s no mention of director Marc Webb or star Andrew Garfield in the release, and all signs point to this being a reboot of sorts, though all projects pertaining to the popular NYC-based superhero are in the earliest stages of development.

Check out the full release:

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man.

Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.

Marvel and Sony Pictures are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films.

The new relationship follows a decade of speculation among fans about whether Spider-Man – who has always been an integral and important part of the larger Marvel Universe in the comic books – could become part of the Marvel Universe on the big screen. Spider-Man has more than 50 years of history in Marvel’s world, and with this deal, fans will be able to experience Spider-Man taking his rightful place among other Super Heroes in the MCU.

“I am thrilled to team with my friends at Sony Pictures along with Amy Pascal to produce the next Spider-Man movie,” said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. “Amy has been deeply involved in the realization on film of one of the world’s most beloved characters. Marvel’s involvement will hopefully deliver the creative continuity and authenticity that fans demand from the MCU. I am equally excited for the opportunity to have Spider-Man appear in the MCU, something which both we at Marvel, and fans alike, have been looking forward to for years.”

Spider-Man, embraced all over the world, is the most successful franchise in the history of Sony Pictures, with the five films having taken in more than $4 billion worldwide.

We may seem like reclusive budget-shirking obscure film enthusiasts over here at Way Too Indie, and well, some of us are, but we’re not living in any dark holes and far be it from of us to say that a film that had a little money behind it isn’t worth our notice. So here we are, covering our bases. In The Monthly Mainstream we’ll look at what’s doing well at the box-office (and secretly hoping it’s an indie darling) and all those major releases that demand our attention in the name of pop culture.

The first real month of the summer big-budget movie extravaganza! May treated us to some money-infused film fun.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 kicked off the month with an overly involved and schizophrenic plot that is of course fun and dizzying to look at but really only delivers an electric background for Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone to stand in front of and showcase their real-life chemistry. At least it’s not Spider-Man 3? At any rate, it’s beginning of the month release date gave it the ground to win the monthly box-office, but we don’t imagine it will outlive some of the other releases in May. Godzilla crept up real close to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in numbers but everyone’s favorite oft-remade monster did better in its opening weekend than everyone’s not-so-favorite oft-remade comic hero.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Godzilla is a fantastic update on the franchise, getting back to the root of what made the films so popular throughout the 50’s and 60’s, the grandeur of the King of the Monsters juxtaposed with the struggles of interesting people. Granted the people are far less interesting to watch than Godzilla is and therefore he should have been given a lot more screen time, but it’s still a very fun watch and an excellent reboot from Gareth Edwards. Staying firmly within the theme of franchises, the next big film pushed on us this past month was X-Men: Days of Future Past. This follow-up to 2011’s X-Men: First Class origin story invites the old X-Men gang back showing the dire situation in the future where the mutants are being hunted and killed by robots designed to outmatch them at every turn. The only way to re-write history is to send Logan (fan-favorite Wolverine) back into his younger self in the 70’s to prevent Raven/Mystique (another fan favorite, hey J-Law) from making a mistake that will butterfly effect the dire future the X-Men face. Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise is refreshing and the film has a great balance of action and fun with some fantastic uses of slo-mo and plenty of laughs at the expense of the 70’s setting.

Godzilla

Rounding off the month’s explosions, though of a much more magical variety, is Disney’s revisionist tale Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie. We can all agree the woman excels at bad-assery, but the film’s attempt to put a dash of feminism in with a large helping of fantastic imagery, while milking fairy tale nostalgia (of the variety that still keeps horribly written TV show Once Upon a Time going) does not appear to be the magical potion for a well-made film. At any rate the spectacle of it all seems to be just distracting enough to have critics torn on whether or not the film is worth seeing.

Looking ahead in the lovely month of June, we continue to see bedazzled performances. Tom Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow, YA sap-fest The Fault in Our Stars, the highly anticipated sequel to the clever and cute How to Train Your Dragon, summer screamer The Purge: Anarchy, and then at the end of the month, gearing up for the 4th of July, we’ll be treated to Michael Bay’s way of showing patriotism: destroying America with Transformers: Age of Extinction. And don’t forget to see festival favorite Snowpiercer at the end of the month. So far we’ve all been pretty impressed over here.

Enjoy the pageantry of summer at the movies, but don’t forget to make time for a few indie June goodies. This month has some great options (many of which are on VOD) including Obvious Child, Ping Pong Summer, Venus in Fur, and documentary The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz.

Stay cool folks!

May Box Office Domestic Grosses

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony) – $192,735,902
2. Godzilla (Warner Brothers) – $174,439,686
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past ( Fox) – $90,823,660
4. Neighbors (Universal) – $128,966,365
5. Maleficent (Disney Buena Vista) – $69,431,298

2014 Year-To-Date Box Office Domestic Grosses

1. The LEGO Movie (Warner Brothers) – $255,436,997
2. Captain America: The Winter Solder (Disney Buena Vista) – $255,176,550
3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony) – $192,735,902
4. Godzilla (2014, Warner Brothers) – $174,439,686
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past (Fox) – $162,020,201

Ten years ago Hollywood graced the world with their Tobey Maguire led rendition of Spider-Man which helped pave the way for a generation of super hero movies to litter our summer line up. Then, Hollywood upped the ante and delivered upon us Spider-Man 2 which was met with critical and financial acclaim. With dollar signs in their eyes and arguably the best source material in the entire Spider-Man universe, Hollywood churned out Spider-Man 3, and came up about two feet short of home plate and was tagged out by a mob of pitchfork wielding critics and fans. Poor Hollywood retreated into its cave of remake henchmen and stewed upon the decision of what to do with the Spider-Man franchise. “We will remake it!” They cried as they threw stacks of $100 bills at each other. “Yes! And we won’t even bother with any of that Nolan-esque gritty reboot nonsense either!” And they made it so. With new directors, writers, and actors, Hollywood was ready to rock-and-roll with their shiny new Spider-Man vehicle in The Amazing Spider-Man!

And rock-and-roll they did not. I can’t imagine a more flat remake than this. It literally treads the same water as the original only more failingly. Andrew Garfield may make an arguably better Peter Parker/Spider-Man with his British-ness and super hair, but everyone forgets that in 2002, Tobey Maguire was being hailed as the true savior of all things spider related.

The Amazing Spider-Man sticks closer to the source material in that they invite Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy to the party and provides a more fleshed out and real super science corporation Oscorp versus the cartoonish one provided in 2002. But the film has the much of the same origin story as the ten year old Spider-Man.

Even if it isn’t exactly the same plot-wise as the original 2002 version, it feels the same. The film still has that sappy ham-fisted moment where everyone agrees to help Spider-Man at a moment of great need. I imagine if a Brooklynite man saw a teenager dressed in a spandex unitard shooting ropes out his wrists and limping around sixty stories overhead, they wouldn’t say, “My good gracious, that man needs our help! Quick! Frank! Help conjure the manpower needed to help this poor unitard wearing teenager in his swinging ways!”

The Amazing Spider-Man also falters with some of the action scenes as well. One particular scene that stands out as especially awkward is one where the villain, a scientist lizard-man, attacks the school Peter Parker attends in an attempt to destroy him quickly. During the whole fight, the musical score accompanying the fight is a wailing and triumphant orchestral movement that is a very strange juxtaposition of the fight scene in which Peter Parker is getting his spider face smashed into everything.

The biologist in me also cringed when the villain grabs a couple of unlabeled beakers of presumably colored water and mixes them together to form a perfectly sized explosion to knock Spider-Man out from his hiding spot. Hollywood still hasn’t grasped the concept that their audience can tell when their being spoon fed fake science. Although, I say this whilst viewing a Spider-Teenager fly around a city fighting crime. But my point is still valid!

Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man languishes in dull territory and left me wanting some grittier content over the already overcooked and cheesy Spider-Man story. It was steering towards campy but narrowly avoids it with some humor, well done special effects and close ups of Emma Stone. It simply lacks any heart. However, Hollywood knows a money maker when they see it and I’m sure there will probably be two more multimillion dollar installments of Spider-Man and we will have two more chances to see random New Yorkers delivering pancake flat lines like, “He needs our help!” Until then, I will be figuring out how to make wall demolishing explosives out of blue and green colored liquids in my nearest science classroom.