‘Him’ fumbles plot coherence but scores big on surreal visuals and devilish temptation
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Football and Faust, right? “Him” makes me imagine the film’s producer Jordan Peele appearing in a cloud of sulfurous smoke with horns, pen in hand. NFL-level football is a sport played by many young Black men, who risk career-ending and even life-ending injury in exchange for fame and wealth. It is certainly a Faustian agreement. Over 50 percent of NFL players are Black. Although there are some Black “minority owners” in the NFL, no NFL teams are “majority owned” by a Black person.
Directed by Justin Tipping, whose previous credits are a mystery to me, “Him” is a film about young, Faustian football star Cameron Cade (the likable, if a bit bland Tyriq Withers), who is given the opportunity to play quarterback for the legendary San Antonio Saviors (Saviors?), although it is not clear that the team’s notably devilish, longtime, multiple Super Bowl-winning quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) is going to retire (this issue is a confusing element in the film).
In a strange opening scene, complete with a flyover by fighter jets, Cameron is alone on a football field and is struck on the head with a nasty-looking, long-handled hammer by an apparition that resembles something out of “The Masked Singer.” Is it supposed to be scary? In spite of his traumatic brain injury, Cameron agrees to go to the Saviors’ training facility, which looks like something out of “Dune: Part 2,” to train under GOAT White in strange, dangerous, if not ridiculous conditions.
Opening scenes set when Cameron is a boy establish that his gold-cross-wearing father (Don Benjamin) is a major Saviors fan and wants his son to grow up to play for them. Fathers, right? In the present time, Cameron, aka “Cam,” is dropped off at the training facility alone in a Texas desert. He finds an elevator and lavish underground living quarters and even an underground football field. In a bit of historical context, Isaiah tells Cam about the “little Indians” who invented the forward pass and “the overhand spiral” because white people were pitting bigger and bigger players against them. Cam meets Isaiah’s wife, Elsie (Julia Fox), who promises carnal delights at the indoor pool with her friends. Cam submits to a medical exam by the team’s strange doctor (Jim Jeffries) in the nude in front of others. The doctor will inject Cam several times with unnamed drugs, claiming to relieve pain.
With its cult-like football players and diabolical, temptress hangers-on, “Him” often comes across as an Ari Aster effort in the style of “Hereditary” or “Midsommar.” But Tipping, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zack Akers (“Limetown”) and Skip Bronkie (“Limetown”), doesn’t have Aster’s narrative rigor. “Him” is all over the place and yet seems to go nowhere. The underground space where the team lives is decorated with modern and ancient art. Death masks adorn the walls. Temptress Fox, in a one-note role, shows up in a gown of tiny mirrors. We know she is capable of more than this. A mad woman gets inside the compound with two compatriots and tries to kill Cam. We get visual reminders of what day it is in Cam’s training with a descriptive word, such as “Vision,” attached. What is this all about? At an event involving the notably white owners of the team, the crazy doctor in a whisper advises Cam to “run.” I believe the audience might want to contemplate the same action.
With its repeatedly circling camera and often shouted dialogue, “Him” invites us to think we are watching a loud, poorly conceived music video. Much of the film’s imagery recalls the John Boorman classic “Excalibur” (1981), swords included. “Him” ends with a bloody climax that provides zero satisfaction. Again, what is this? Playing this film’s Mephistopheles, Wayans overacts egregiously (if not Mephistopheles-ily). All of this was done so much better in HBO’s late, lamented “Ballers.”
‘Him’
Rating: R, bloody violence, nudity, sexual content, profanity, drug use.
Cast: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox
Director: Justin Tipping
Writers: Zack Akers, Skip Bronkie, Tipping
Running time: 96 minutes
Where to watch: In theaters
Grade: C
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