Him: Original But Absurdly Muddled

For a film critic, the only thing more disappointing than a bad movie is a bad movie that should have been a very good one. The novelty of a football-themed horror movie is unmistakable, and while I understand that he didn't write or direct it, having a name as proven as Jordan Peele attached to your project should be enough to indicate to me that a movie will be, you know, good. I had every expectation that this would be a great movie, perhaps even a genre trailblazer of some sort. So it is with great displeasure and disappointment that I report to you that Him is nothing more than an absolute mess of a movie that thinks it's a lot better than it actually is. On just about every level, this movie fumbles the ball in a visual cacophony of flashing lights that director Justin Tipping wants you to believe is avant-garde filmmaking. To be brutally honest, this movie is really nothing more than self-distraction, a long ball hoping to visually dazzle critics and audiences enough that they overlook its many glaring flaws.

The gist of the movie is this idea to never meet your heroes, but Him can't even make him interesting; in no way does it get its title character right. It's a movie that's trying to be about Cameron Cade and his experience with his childhood hero, famed quarterback Isaiah White, and White's esoteric football cult, but Tyriq Withers really lets both the character of Cam and the audience down with a phoned-in performance that's about as interesting as a loaf of packing foam. Withers fluctuates between boredom and indifference, very much like a middle school boy sitting in a job interview, and it's a shame, because this movie is, you know, about him. He just can't bring himself to give very much back to it. Still, Marlon Wyans is firing on all cylinders as Isaiah messed-up-in-the-head White, Cade's mentor, with a commanding, magnetic, even menacing performance. He's a deadly caricature of an alpha male - to use the much-maligned and memed term - but in a good way, a man who demands blood, sweat, tears, blood, and more blood. He takes all the toughness usually directed at drills and points it in some beautifully sinister directions. Nevertheless, while I can tell that this movie is trying to comment on the mentor-mentee relationship between Cam and Isaiah, it loses itself in what's essentially an acid trip, despite Wyans's best efforts.

The psychedelic aspect of Him is grossly overplayed. I liked it in doses, but the "trip" feeling of this movie begins to wear one down with time. Earlier in the runtime, it was actually a really effective trait, but the more and more we're bombarded with harsh, flashing lights and imagery, the less and less meaningful it becomes. Him contains a lot of interesting ideas, but it ultimately doesn't know what to do with them outside of spray them around in every which direction. The brighter the lights flare, the more obvious it becomes that they serve as a distraction from a woefully underdeveloped story. This movie is a mixture of a couple of moving parts that actually move as they should, a lot of empty spectacle that can't find a good thematic reason to exist, and too much hallucination with not enough substance to grab onto. In a lot of ways, it almost seems like Him is trying to distract us from itself.

There's a good movie in here somewhere, and earlier on in this movie's runtime, I was genuinely wondering what the critics had been so up in arms about. To bring up a more positive point, the most immediately apparent thing about Him is the novelty of how creative its premise actually is. A football horror movie? Produced by Jordan Peele? I'd never seen anything quite like it, and the moment I saw the trailer online, I was sold. While I understand that the true worth of a movie lies in its execution, there's also something to be said for originality, and Him has a lot of it. However, while I do see the good things about this movie, namely that undeniable originality and one very robust supporting performance, Him goes entirely off the rails when given enough time to, devolving into the low-hanging fruit of predictable and easy bloodshed instead of actually taking the time to explore the fascinating ideas and concepts it brings up. If asked to make a tagline for this movie, I'd call it a student film with a great idea, a really substantial budget, and not much else to offer the world.

Him - 5/10

2 John 1:7-11