The dark side of the middle class ideal of home ownership, a bedrock component of the
American Dream, is explored with briskly-paced verve, giving this twisty tale of myth-making,
entrenched racism, and financial manipulation an urgent vibrancy. The explosive growth of
post-WWII suburbia, exemplified by developments like Levittown, launched legions of returning
white G.I.s into a class upgrade that made them lords of the lawnmower and backyard grill,
while minorities were simultaneously being barred from the giddy prosperity party of the Fifties
by practices that included extensive redlining and covenant deeds that mandated racial and ethnic
exclusions. Director Angelini (producer of MY FRIEND DAHMER) moves forward through
the decades to link house flipping, the McMansion craze, underwater mortgages, and the 2008
crash with the widening gap between the haves and have-nots. DCP digital. (BS)