Directed by Justin Tipping, written by Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers and Tipping. Produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. Starring Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox.
If you go see Him anticipating a sports movie featuring plenty of gridiron action peppered with horror movie tropes, you’ll either be surprised or disappointed, depending on your willingness to forego prior expectations. It isn’t a standard sports genre narrative but an alternate version of Faust through the lens of modern allegorical fantasy: Jungian in its archetypal personae, and Lynchian in its dreamlike connections to not-quite reality. Some of the trappings of sports movies are there—the brutal physicality, the driving ambition that leads to untold riches, toxic fandom, moral reckoning—but presented in a way that plays more art house than multiplex.
As a child, Cam Cade begins as one of the San Antonio Saviors’ greatest fans, cheering on the team from the floor of the family living room, surrounded by loving parents, warm encouragement and Saviors memorabilia, including references to his football hero Isaiah White. During exciting televised plays, Cam chants Isaiah’s name with his dad, willing future success: “I’m Isaiah White! I’m him!”.
Cam (Tyriq Withers) grows up to be an incredibly talented star quarterback himself: disciplined and driven but also kind, humble and ever-mindful of the promise he made to his now late dad that he will pursue the dream they shared, with all of his heart. As an elite player, when Cam is asked whether he’ll go on to be the next G.O.A.T., he hesitates to claim that mantle for himself, knowing he still has to earn it.
While training for the league combine, Cam is attacked by a lone person in a goat costume before leaving the empty stadium one night, sustaining a potentially career-ending head injury. As he recovers, dealing with the news that another injury could result in permanent brain damage, he grows more reflective, emotional and prone to fleeting hallucinations, deciding not to participate in the combine after all. The dream chases him down, however, when his agent calls with an incredible opportunity for Cam to train with the G.O.A.T. himself. Isaiah White, mulling retirement, has invited Cam out to his desert compound to see if Cam has what it takes to inherit the crown.
To get to Isaiah’s place, Cam’s chauffeured S.U.V. passes a gauntlet of die-hard (literally) fans, from shamanic face-painters trembling with awe to the ones full of white-hot hatred . “We don’t like you,” a feral female face-painter flanked by mute, pale, barely-dressed minions hisses, before spitting on the window. A shapeless mop of a pink mascot wearing a cowboy hat mingles aimlessly on the edges of the volatile, motley group. Fandom is only one given in the life of star player, and “Are you a fan?” is only one of the loaded questions waiting to explode throughout the simmering narrative. The weirdness prior to Cam’s arrival is a preview of more to come as Cam enters the impressive minimalist/modernist mansion that closer resembles a lonely museum than luxurious residence with its own training field.
Though Isaiah (Marlon Wayans) seems like an all-right guy when he first appears, engaging in his hobby of taxidermy (“I like to live off the land when I’m out here,” he tells Cam), warnings flash as Cam’s training gets underway and Isaiah goes from fairly easy-going with a quirky sense of humor to mysterious and intense in a way that keeps Cam constantly off-balance. Isaish has a “trophy” wife, Elsie (Julia Fox), to match his many glass-encased trophies, championship rings and jerseys. She’s something of a “sexual wellness” entrepreneur who’s obviously and unabashedly had lots of “work” done, and has her own work to do trying to get Cam to loosen up. She and Isaiah don’t seem to spend much time together, but she has her “girls” that she hangs out with while Isaiah spends time with former players, and a personal doctor, who’s something like a “team” doctor, only there’s no team, just guys that act as sparring partners for Cam to train with, and who seem completely willing to sacrifice their bodies to the cause of building Cam into an undisputed champion.
Cam is measured, poked, prodded and pushed to the limit repeatedly, all the while receiving mysterious injections, infusions and ice baths. Certain plays on the training field show bodies from the inside, highlighting the brutality in a photo-negative way that visually suggests jagged pain, peering through flesh at anonymous skeletons in hand-to-hand combat (which oddly recall vintage photographs of myriad stacks of animal bones Cam saw when he entered Isaiah’s “hobby room”). As Cam continues to train and receive ongoing treatment for his earlier head injury as well as the fresh abuse his body is taking, more loaded questions are put to him by Isaiah, such as “Would you rather never get tired or never get injured?” Questions that on the surface seem rhetorical become less so as the training intensifies, and Cam’s relationship with Isaiah becomes more fraught.
I think of the Bible story of David and King Saul, wherein Saul at first is fond of David but then becomes so jealous that he seeks to destroy him. There are many biblical allusions throughout this film: quotes, references and one striking tableau referencing a famous work of art. I’ve seen the “What is this movie really about?” posts online, and all I can say is that it’s complicated, multi-layered, and many-faceted. Trying to explain it is difficult; it’s a film to see and think about. To say it’s about football is like saying Breaking Bad is about making meth. Yes, it’s about that, but also much more, revealing hidden currents in American culture and illuminating the not-so-hidden in a different light.
Him is filmed in New Mexico, so there are visual echoes of Breaking Bad from time to time, as well a recurring theme about what one is willing sacrifice for the sake of family. According to Isaiah, players sacrifice themselves to take care of the family, and whatever costs incurred to that end are worth it.
In Breaking Bad, when Walter White discovers he has cancer, he goes from mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher to international meth kingpin to provide for his family; at least that’s the reason he gives for ultimately embracing his darkest impulses, until he’s willing to admit the truth. Isaiah doesn’t seem to have much of a family, and not even much of a marriage. The people around him act more as paid functionaries than old friends and teammates, and the physician who signed up to heal players sits on the sidelines in a bored stupor as one of Cam’s training partners is pounded to a pulp by a jugs machine run by a silent ex-player who seems unaware of the blood oozing from his own head. Like the re-animated crew of the Ancient Mariner, they fulfill their purpose and then seem to disappear from whence they came. It’s like their destiny is to help Cam fulfill his, and his is, like Isaiah’s and the earlier champion players whose jerseys hang in a special room, to be the next G.O.A.T.—or so it would seem.
This film has received some harsh reviews, but I refer you to Marlon Wayans’ reaction and remarks about critics and the nature of art. I agree that in spite of an initial negative response from some, people should see this film and make up their own minds. It’s “not everyone’s cup of tea,” as my former creative writing professor used to say, but to quote one of my fellow authors, DuVay Knox, it’s definitely “worth a peep.”
I’m not particularly a horror nor sports movie fan, but I am a cinephile and student (and teacher) of film. I was drawn to Him because it intrigued me, and now that I’ve seen it, I’m still intrigued. I think any film that bears thinking about long after the initial viewing is one worth seeing.