3.5 stars (out of 5)
While Andrew Garfield, the latest Spider-Man, is strong in this, co-writer/director Ramin Bahrani’s screw-the-American-Dream drama, he’s rather upstaged by Michael Shannon, who’s once again playing the villain of the piece (and with his cold eyes and craggy gob that’s no surprise). However, unlike Shannon’s General Zod from Man Of Steel, his Michael Carver here is real, an unethical, heartless bastard and, just perhaps, the exact kind of person YOU will be dealing with all too soon.
Garfield’s construction worker Dennis Nash is introduced fighting for his house after bad financial advice and losing, and soon (in a sequence that’s horrible to watch) he’s evicted from the homestead by a pair of cops and pro real estate crook Rick Carver (Shannon), who’s happy to blame the GFC for his criminal activities. Nash is forced to live in a seedy motel with his anguished Mom Lynn (Laura Dern) and son Connor (Noah Lomax), and when he finds his money drying up, the script clamps down and he’s forced to secretly work for Carver, as still more homeowners are thrown mercilessly out into the street.
Dennis’ corruption is the focus here, and we watch as he learns to not care (or at least valiantly tries to), and yet it’s hard not to like Shannon, just a bit, no matter how appallingly he behaves, and it’s he who ensures that this often plays something like a horror movie, where talk of foreclosures, mortgages and banks (brrrrr!!!) are more terrifying than zombies, serial killers and torture porn.
I Wake Up Screening 