Andrew Garfield Thriller With 92% On Rotten Tomatoes Gets Second Life On Netflix

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Andrew Garfield may be best known as Peter Parker in “The Amazing Spider-Man” franchise, in addition to his roles in Oscar-winners such as “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” but one of the actor’s most underrated movies is currently finding a second life on Netflix a full decade after its original release. Directed by Ramin Bahrani, “99 Homes” has been climbing up the streamer’s charts in recent days as viewers have begun to discover the gut-wrenching, hugely impactful drama.

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Ranked as one of the best movies from Sundance 2015 by /Film at the time, “99 Homes” has recently become a somewhat unexpected hit on Netflix. The film is currently at number eight on the streamer’s most-watched movie charts, just ahead of Sony’s surprise hit comedy “One of Them Days” and behind Scarlet Johansson’s 2014 sci-fi flick “Lucy,” per FlixPatrol. The fact that this little indie is currently sitting alongside huge hits like “The Croods” and “Despicable Me 4” is, to say the least of it, an impressive feat.

For those who may not be familiar, the film centers on a desperate, out of work construction worker named Dennis (Garfield) who reluctantly accepts a job with a ruthless real-estate broker named Rick (Michael Shannon) who recently evicted his family from their home. Set amidst the backdrop of the 2008 housing crisis, Dennis is then forced to help evict other people from their homes to secure a better life for his family.

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Given that it’s arguably one of Michael Shannon’s best movies, in addition to one of Garfield’s, it’s truly nice to see it finding new, unexpected success on Netflix. It’s very easy for good movies to simply be swallowed up by the algorithm. For whatever reason, all these years later, this one is resonating with people in the here and now.

In its day, the movie was sort of buried by massive hits like Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” and “Hotel Transylvania 2” at the box office. It made less than $2 million in total, and that was seemingly that. It’s not as though critics weren’t on this movie’s side when it came out, as “99 Homes” currently boasts a stellar 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s just that it couldn’t break through the noise at the time.

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For Garfield, this came right after “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” brought an unceremonious end to his time as Peter Parker. Mind you, this was long before he came back in the massive hit that was “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” What it did though, was help kick off an interesting portion of Garfield’s career, with the actor exploring rich characters and great character work in a wide array of movies made by compelling directors.

While movies like “Hacksaw Ridge” would end up getting him a Best Actor Oscar nomination in 2017, garnering far more attention, it’s hard to find an outright better performance in Garfield’s impressive career. While we won’t get into spoilers here for those who haven’t seen it, the character arc that Dennis goes through is truly impressive. It’s also really tough to watch, especially for anyone who remembers what the housing crisis was like.

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Shannon also delivers a searing, villainous performance, with Laura Dern offering up an MVP supporting performance. If you’re not one of the people who has checked this one out recently, this serves as a good excuse to recommend that you do. It’s not necessarily a fun watch, but it’s a worthwhile one. It’s also one of those rare but nice “better late than never” success stories. This kind of thing simply doesn’t happen all that often, particularly in the streaming era.

You can also grab “99 Homes” on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon.