HIM: 2 ½ STARS. “A candidate for the Most Overwrought Sports Movie Ever.”
SYNOPSIS: In “HIM,” a new psychological sports horror film starring Marlon Wayans and now playing in theatres, after suffering a potentially career-ending brain injury, up-and-coming quarterback Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) accepts an offer to train with a legendary coach at his isolated compound. As the training intensifies Cameron’s life is plunged into a dark world of sacrifice.
CAST: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, Jim Jefferies. Directed by Justin Tipping.
REVIEW: A candidate for the Most Overwrought Sports Movie Ever, “HIM” is a jarring look at football culture. A curious mix of football, power dynamics, gore and psychological horror, it’s a muddled mix of “Any Given Sunday” and “Rosemary’s Baby.”
When an attack by a crazed football mascot leaves next-big-thing quarterback Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) with a brain injury, it appears his dreams of superstardom will have to be put on hold. When he’s offered the chance to train with “Him,” legendary Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), it’s a second chance he can’t turn down.
The charismatic former quarterback lives in a remote, state-of-the-art compound as he contemplates the final phase of his professional career. He’s thinking about hanging it up and wants to train the next G.O.A.T.
The training is extreme, a bootcamp with no distractions, just football. As the mix of physical and psychological coaching pushes Cameron to his limit, he senses a sinister, cult-like vibe in the compound. “In this game violence is rewarded,” Isaiah tells Cameron, “so learn to enjoy it.”
As Isaiah shifts from inspiring to menacing, Cameron’s quest for fame and success at the hands of his new mentor becomes a matter of life and death. “I’m not going to just give it to you,” Isaiah says, “You going to have to take it from me.”
Slick and stylish, “HIM” is a metaphor masquerading as a movie. Through artfully composed shots director Justin Tipping uses splashy music video style visuals to comment on athletic commodification and exploitation, the sports physical toll and the price of fame.
The result is an undeniably cool looking film. Whether it is the live action X-Ray imagery of on field collisions between players to graphically illustrate the devastating internal damage done during regular play or the psychedelic training scenes or the gory and gross Grand Guignol finale, the film’s style is pure eye-candy.
It’s in the storytelling that the movie fumbles. Disjointed and often incoherent, the narrative ideas get smothered by the film’s high style. More interested in flashy visuals than narrative cohesion, it allows its premise of football as a religion that requires great sacrifice to get lost. It’s an interesting concept, one that could have inspired psychological horror, but instead is content to stylishly splatter the screen with fake plasma.
Despite an MVP performance from Marlon Wayans and some interesting (although unexplored) ideas, “HIM” is style over substance.
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