Title: Him
Describe This Movie Using One The Running Man Quote:
CAPT FREEDOM: This is a sport of death and honor! Code of the gladiators!
KILLIAN: Cap, will you spare me the combat Zen speech? What the hell’s the matter with you?
Brief Plot Synopsis: Maybe some things aren’t worth fighting for?
Rating Using Random Objects Related To The Film: 2 rapidly dilating eyeballs out of 5.
Tagline: “Greatness demands sacrifice.”
Better Tagline: “Football is like religion, or something.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Star college quarterback Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is almost guaranteed a No. 1 pick in the upcoming USFF draft until a mysterious attack leaves him with a brain injury. Electing to skip the combine for reasons of physical *and* mental health, he’s nevertheless invited to work out for a week at the compound of San Antonio Saviors QB Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). Rumor has it that eight-time champion White is retiring, and Cam is the heir apparent. As the week progresses, however, Cam starts to question whether White is really ready to hang it up after all.
“Critical” Analysis: Say what you want about the 2015 movie Concussion, it kind of put an end to the idea of American football as an inspirational cinema topic. About the only major-ish studio release since then that qualifies is 2021’s American Underdog, a lower-case “f” fine — and unremarkable — standard inspirational sports template flick.
Him ain’t that. Director Justin Tipping and screenwriters Skip Bronkie and Zachary Akers are more interested in football as a metaphor for unhealthy obsession, in this case Cam’s potentially ruinous desire to become football’s GOAT (Him’s original title, as it happens).
That road led through the current champ, however, and Wayans peels off a bit from his traditional parody shtick to bring some authentic menace to White, the architect of the Saviors’ run of eight(!) straight championships. And if you’re thinking that number sounds too good to be true, congrats: you have a pretty good handle on where things are going.
Because even more popular than movies about football are those chronicling mankind’s enduring attraction to deals with the devil. Him is pretty obvious in that regard. One poster shows Withers as Cameron Cade adopting a pretty solid Jesus Christ pose, the other is a direct homage to The Devil’s Advocate. There’s also a nifty Last Supper hallucination to boot.
At least, it might be a hallucination. Tipping uses Cameron’s head injury (in an attack that’s still mostly nonsensical, even after seeing the ending) to keep the audience of balance, always teasing the possibility that what our young quarterback is seeing is just a product of his swollen brain. Some of the sequences, especially as we approach the climax, are hallucinatory enough that they’re practically Cosmatos-esque (“The Viewing” from Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities chief among them).
If that doesn’t sound like a winning formula for a football movie, that’s fine, because Him really isn’t concerned with crowd shots and gridiron action. In fact, there’s no actual gameplay or footage whatsoever. It’s a horror movie with sports elements, and even those are twisted to further the movie’s presumably unsettling message.
But the message is muddled. The sinister revelations about the real reason for White’s successful career should serve as a clear counterpoint to Cam’s faith and devotion to his family, except his father was a military parent of the Great Santini variety and Cam’s career aspirations are pretty shaky. And if the cabal at the end of Him is intended to represent the often blatant evil of NFL ownership, it’s about as subtle as a nail through your hand.
Jerry Jones probably commits worse crimes against humanity on a typical Wednesday.
Tipping swings for the fences, but uses the bat to bludgeon rather than lay down a bunt. There’s no finesse to the approach, and all the gnarly imagery can’t distract from that. And if I hadn’t mixed my metaphors enough, Him just can’t find the back of the net.
Him is in theaters today.
