Everyone knows that sport is a serious business. People get so passionate about it that it's quite scary. There are a number of sports that could take top priority in your life, and many Americans absolutely love their American Football, whether they're supporting a team or spending some of their youth risking injury and pain for the sake of becoming a decent player. Him is a film about someone who could be more than a decent player. That person could be a new GOAT, but it's going to require a fair amount of sacrifice, of course.
Tyriq Withers plays Cam, a young football player who looks to have a bright future ahead of him. Then he's suddenly attacked, which leads to him requiring some rehabilitation and a reconsideration of his options. He still wants to play football though, and he wants to be the best. That's how he ends up being given the opportunity to be mentored by the great Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), a quarterback who is due to retire from his team, the San Antonio Saviors. Has Cam got what it takes to make it? And will he want everything that comes with his potential superstardom?
If I told you that I'd already heard some mixed opinions on this film then I'd be lying. Most people I know disliked it. Some hated it. I couldn't help being intrigued though, especially with the cast including Wayans in that main role, and support from Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, and Jim Jefferies. I also enjoyed the fact that I both knew the kind of film that I was getting, yet also wasn't sure exactly where it was going to go before the end credits rolled.
Directed by Justin Tipping, who also co-wrote it with Skip Bronkie and Zack Akers, Him is an enjoyable trip into some truly bonkers horror territory. Things start off strange, and it only gets weirder and weirder with each subsequent sequence, but it's easy to believe that Cam would tolerate almost anything as he stretches further out over the abyss while ready to grab his golden prize. It feels very much like a case of someone being bemused, but also thinking "okay, this is how things happen when you can just do anything you want".
There's a great soundtrack and score accompanying the impressive visuals, with everything designed to be impressively cool and unsettling, and the lead performances are good enough to sell the main storyline. Withers is decent, although he's the least interesting character until allowed to have some fun in the third act. Wayans is superb, almost giving us two very different characters in one, a man who has given his all to something that has also given him everything in return, for better or worse. Heidecker is cast well, Jefferies equally so, and Fox seems to have been asked to play her character as a cross between a business manager and Lady Gaga. Which, to be clear, I am not complaining about.
While it may not work for those wanting something comfortably familiar, and less darkly comedic, Him absolutely hit the spot for me. It looks at pain, at sacrifice, at being pushed along a certain path through life that was plotted for you by others, and it felt like a genre-shaded mockery of the lengths that people and clubs will go to in order to tie a potentially great player into a contract. And it does it all in a decent 96-minute runtime. It may not be a complete blowout, but it's a convincing victory.
7/10
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