Review: HIM

Directed by: Justin Tipping

Written by: Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, Justin Tipping

Starring: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker

Rating: [1/5]

While at times mentioned in a joking manner, football has seriously become a religion in the United States. A form of organized sports with a following so rabid that entire towns structure their schedules around it. Everyone tunes in to watch their team play and worship the athletes on the field. HIM tries through a complete kaleidoscope of visuals to exemplify the phenomena of this sport and the way it uses and abuses those on the field, but it could not deliver a cohesive story with meaningful substance. 

Desperate to become the greatest quarterback of all time, Cam (Tyriq Withers) receives an invitation to attend a private camp led by his idol Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). While attending the camp, Cam participates in strange drills and sees another side of the NFL experience while barely maintaining an idea of what’s transpiring around him. 

Everything in the marketing about HIM sought to sell this trippy experience dissecting the football culture in America. I can certainly state this film did, in fact, attempt to accomplish this, but the manner in which it all comes together is displayed as nothing other than a tragedy. It became one of those experiences that’s difficult to explain because everything was wrong, and it just left me in shock at its incompetence and how something with such a concept could fail so badly. A good movie exists in here, certainly, but the directions taken leaves much to be desired. 

This all happens through the perspective of someone wanting to achieve the highest of highs in sports: having everyone consider them the greatest of all time. Achieving this level of recognition comes from a combination of incredible talent, a ruthlessness like no other, and the necessary support to make it all happen. HIM to its credit, attempts to address all of these elements in the time Cam spends in Isaiah’s compound but in a heightened manner. This includes a level of physical abuse for mistakes and a level of manipulation all with the intention of making Cam someone worthy of taking the mantle Isaih has held for many years. 

The level of gratuitous violence on display carries a purpose, which I give the film credit for. Everything visually presented on screen paints the picture of the film’s many theses. At the very least I will give the film props there. Even the elements that visually disturb or distort reality work in service of something. However, the question at the core of this review lies in whether anything being serviced here carries any real narrative sense, and I would heavily argue it does not. 

Having this film fail so badly hits extra hard for me because of the level of expectation built around it for me personally for various reasons. One being my excitement to see Justin Tipping direct another feature film. I love his debut feature Kicks and the way he so seamlessly tackled the concept of shoe culture in the Black community. Him not getting another opportunity until nearly ten years later with the desire to dissect the material at hand here brought so much promise. This being such an epic failure really stinks, especially because the quality will overshadow Marlon Wayans putting in some strong dramatic work. I’ve always maintained an appreciation for Wayans and consistently felt he does not receive the credit he deserves for the times he does turn in respectable dramatic work. He hits another level in his portrayal of Isaiah but in service of something not worth remembering. 

Style over substance gets thrown out there a lot as a criticism for films with a visual palette receiving prioritization over a coherent narrative. HIM sits right at the top of the list that has fallen down this trap of its sentiment. It would be great for someone else to take another stab at a story like this one, as so much potential sits right there when looking at the plight of athletes and the way they are used and abused in the process of achieving their wildest dreams. Plenty of fertile ground to mine, but this film does not even scratch the surface in a meaningful manner, resulting in one of the biggest personal disappointments I’ve had with a film.