Him ~ Review

By: [email protected] on
About halfway through the hauntingly surreal Him, something occurred to me, and it was this…I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Now, when I say that, I don’t mean that the film is confusing or has a complicated narrative, because it is neither of those things (not a criticism). However, the movie has much to say about the nature of power and money, particularly in professional sports. The problem for me is that the narrative, philosophical underpinnings, and a trippy dreamlike tone never gel into a cohesive whole.
 
Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is a rising football star, a quarterback seemingly destined to become one of the greatest players of his generation. He’s almost as good as the current GOAT (greatest of all time) quarterback, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), who also happens to be Cameron’s childhood idol. Everything is looking good for Cameron, and he’s likely to be a number one draft pick, that is, until a crazed fan attacks him and hits him on the head. Suffering from a traumatic head injury, Cameron thinks his hopes are dashed, that is, until Isaiah reaches out with a once-in-a-lifetime offer – train with the legendary quarterback and then maybe Cameron can take his place on the fictional San Antonia Saviours. Cameron goes to Isaiah’s compound in the middle of the desert, and things get weird, really weird. White’s training style borders on abusive, a creepy doctor (Jim Jeffries) keeps giving Cameron strange blood transfusions, and Isiah’s wife, Elsie (Julia Fox), keeps vamping around in skin-tight outfits and parading stippers in front of the very monogamous QB. Is Cameron hallucinating this entire Gothic Dante’s Inferno meets Dracula meets the Persephone myth? Or is something much more sinister going on?
 
I want to make this clear, Him is not a bad film. Just a hard movie to parse, director and co-writer Justin Tipping has a lot of ideas, too many in fact, for one film to contain. There are many discussions about football players being gladiators. Basically, how professional sports stars are an exploited underclass that destroys their bodies and minds for extreme fame and wealth. There’s a lot of talk about the sacrifices needed to become famous, particularly for athletes. There are also explorations of toxic masculinity and how it pertains to sports, and the way men behave when it comes to jealousy.
 
Tipping chooses to primarily frame most of the characters in the center frame, which forces the audience’s attention to the middle. This creates an off-kilter effect, but it’s never employed for anything more than surreal sequences, which are incredibly photographed and mostly intense. However, the film tries to explore too many themes at the same time, which ultimately makes Him fall apart at the end. Again, I think this really comes  down to an overstuffed script by Zack Ackers, Skip Bronkie, and Tipping. On the other hand, movies these days have such a dearth of ideas that it’s hard to criticize a film for having too many.
 
The performances across the board are great. Withers is excellent as a rising football star who will do anything for success for his family. He gives a very emotional monologue in the middle about how his father coached him, which was really well delivered and heartfelt. Marlon Wayans is the standout here, though. He delivers a completely unhinged performance as Isaiah White, a man whose fame, athletic prowess, and general injuries have completely destroyed his mind in the service of being a football star. Wayans' work is magnetic here. We rarely get to see him in this mode, but he’s always fantastic when he is, and I hope he does more stuff like this.
 
In twenty years, Him will become a cult classic. A staple of late-night dorm room marijuana infused watch parties. Film students will write papers, the next generation of critics will compose eloquent think pieces, and all of them will point to reviews like this one and say, “Man, the critics just didn’t get it.” And you know what? I’m okay with that.
 
Two out of Four Stars