Arguably, we are in the Andrew Garfield Era. Over the last 18 months or so, the actor has reminded moviegoers of his versatility and commitment to embracing challenging roles while proving to be a total delight as a human being. Recently we’ve had his return to his web-slinger role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, his performance as a conflicted Mormon detective in Under The Banner of Heaven, his supporting work in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and his acclaimed lead role in Tick, Tick…BOOM!.
But his achievements as an artist aren’t limited to the last couple of years. These recent titles followed his Tony Award win for his lead work in the 2017/2018 revival of Angels in America as well his underappreciated masterful turn in the Martin Scorsese feature Silence.
If you’re like many of his fans, you may be running out of fresh Garfield-related content to take in. So, if you’re dying to check out a perhaps overlooked, well-wrought performance from Garfield, though, it’s time you checked out his lead performance in 99 Homes.
If the title doesn’t ring a bell, that’s understandable. Released in October 2015, the theatrical release of 99 Homes was plagued by several factors. These included how it debuted to the general public 14 months after its initial film festival premiere buzz came and went as well as its distributor, Broad Green Pictures, not being super familiar with releasing arthouse titles. But the obscurity here shouldn’t conceal the fact that this title contains one of Garfield’s best turns as a performer.
The grim tone of 99 Homes is established right off the bat as the camera lingers on the partially obscured corpse of a person who’s just committed suicide. Real estate operator Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) strolls through the deceased’s property, preparing to sell it. This is the grim world of home evictions, a domain Carver is the king of in this pocket of Orlando, Florida. His occupation soon brings him face to face with Dennis Nash (Garfield), who is promptly evicted from his home alongside his mom and young son. Initially furious at Carver, the cash-strapped Nash soon begins working for this man, which entails him evicting other people from their homes. Nash is now a part of a system that chews people up and spits them out.
It’d be easy for an actor to play the shift in Nash’s life in broad terms, but Garfield doesn’t go that route. He depicts the evolving nature of this character in subtle ways, we’re watching a slow-burn moral rot, not something that happens overnight. After establishing a naturalistic person for Nash in the earliest scenes of 99 Homes, Garfield does remarkable work chipping away at that status quo in his demeanor as he gets more and more financially stable. Money doesn’t just bring security, it also, to paraphrase Marge Simpson, alters Nash as a person so gradually you barely even notice.
This depiction of Nash’s evolution is just one of several ways Garfield impresses in 99 Homes. Another notable quality in his work here is how he utilizes his naturally youthful appearance. This facet of Garfield’s physical profile allowed him to play a college student in The Social Network when he was in his mid-20s or depict a teenage Spider-Man as he turned 30 years old. Youthfulness has been a big detail in his career, right up to modern works like Tick, Tick…BOOM!, which is all about a guy whose mental state is riddled with anxiety over the prospect of turning 30 years old.
This quality is put to its most tragic use in the context of 99 Homes. The strain of capitalism that turns members of the proletariat against one another, through means like evicting poor people from their homes for cash, can affect anyone. Director Raman Bahrani quietly uses Garfield, an actor associated with youth in the minds of moviegoers, to convey that this widespread impact can extend to even younger people. Nobody is exempt from these terrible ripple effects, even a single dad in their 20s can become a class traitor. Quietly leaning into this quality adds another subtle layer to Nash’s story that only Garfield, with his history as a performer, could provide effortlessly.
What makes 99 Homes stand out among Garfield’s filmography, though, is what a departure it is from the actor’s other roles. Garfield is an actor who has a clear fondness for pronounced traits in his performances. He embraces rather than shies away from the overt Southern accents that his characters in The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Hacksaw Ridge carried. Let’s also not forget that Garfield delivered appropriately maximalist work in portraying a singing-and-dancing version of Jonathan Larson on the cusp of 30 in Tick, Tick…BOOM! If you want somebody who can go entertainingly over the top, Garfield’s your guy.
By contrast, 99 Homes is directed by Roman Bahrani. His earliest works, like Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, employed non-actors and thrived on realistic subtlety. They eschewed glamour and grandiose touches in order to capture the nuances of everyday reality. That’s a unique workspace for Garfield to work in and, just like with his masterful lead role in Silence, he proves more than up to the challenge of doing something more restrained. What worked so well for Garfield’s depiction of Jonathan Larson would’ve been out of place here in 99 Homes and the actor is conscious of that truth
Thus, audiences get to be reminded here of Garfield’s gifts for more subdued performances, especially the actor’s depiction of Nash’s detached mechanical demeanor whenever evicted tenets begin to respond profoundly to losing their homes. The everyman looking out for his family from the opening scenes of 99 Homes is gone. Garfield quietly conveys in authentic touches, both in these tragic moments and all throughout 99 Homes, how human suffering now falls on deaf ears for Nash. Garfield can be quite excellent in a more pronounced mode but adjusting his talents to the unique demands of a Bahrani film showcases the man’s versatility excellently.
Thanks to its brutal subject matter and its unflinching depiction of how one person’s wealth tends to come at the expense of another human being (both crystallized in that shocking opening scene), 99 Homes isn’t exactly the kind of movie you play on a Saturday night easy escapism. However, it’s an extremely well-crafted feature in its filmmaking and allows Andrew Garfield to deliver a unique lead performance in his body of work. Don’t let 99 Homes slip through the cracks, it’s just as worthy any Garfield film of high praise.
