Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) is a struggling single father of a young son in Orlando, Florida. When he, his young son Connor, and his mother Lynn (Laura Dern) are evicted from their home, he starts working for the bully who evicted them, Rick Carver (Michael Shannon).
Tropes:
- Deal with the Devil: Dennis takes a job with Rick, who evicted him and his family, because he feels he has no choice.
- Foreshadowing: Carver shows Dennis the scar of a bite he got from a foreclosed tenant's dog; which hints at what Nash will do to him in the finale.
- Hell Hotel: Dennis, Connor, and Lynn move into a fleapit motel where people are cussing, screaming, and fighting at all hours of the day and night.
- Meaningful Name: Both the leads. Carver shreds families, homes, communities... everything really. Nash, when backed into a corner bites back hard. Crosses over with Foreshadowing above.
- Multigenerational Household: Dennis lives with his mother and his young son, both in their house and then in a tiny motel room.
- Struggling Single Mother: A Rare Male Example. Dennis is a single father to a young son, and they lose their house in the opening minutes.
- Sadistic Choice: Dennis gets the choice late in the film between committing fraud and evicting his son's best friend and his family, or losing the Santa Fe deal, his house, and millions of dollars.
- Shout-Out: When calling Dennis just before the end, Carver calls him Donald Trump (which also doubles as
Harsher in Hindsight or Hilarious in Hindsight given that this was before Trump's presidency). - Sunshine Noir: It's always sunny in Florida, but it's still an unhappy place of poverty and deprivation.
- Title Drop: Notably never done, as the two only ever talk about the 100 homes they're getting for the Santa Fe deal. The title refers to the fact that they're one short due to a clerical error from Carver's team.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: Despite being an asshole, a criminal, a very sadistic Karma Houdini, and having ruined thousands (if not millions) of lives (as well as cheating on his wife and using the police to serve under him during the eviction scenes), Rick genuinely adores his young daughters.
