Him Has Got Style to Burn and Not Much Else

"The basic premise of Him is so fun that I'm half-hoping someone else takes the idea and makes a different movie out of it. An injured up-and-coming rookie football quarterback is invited to work out with a veteran championship quarterback who may or may not be on the edge of retirement. Under increasingly absurd and nightmarish circumstances, it becomes clear the veteran isn't ready to cede the stage for the younger man."

"Him's marketing has Jordan Peele's name all over it as producer, but it was actually directed by Justin Tipping, whose previous feature was the ultrastylized 2016 indie movie Kicks. Tipping has been working in the TV salt mines since then, which might explain why in Him he throws every cinematic trick in the book at us; maybe he needs an outlet for all that creative energy. The movie at times plays like a high-budget student film: It's eager to impress us with technique."

"It takes place mostly at the enormous desert compound of football legend Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), the multiple-MVP-winning quarterback of the San Antonio Saviors. (Sample slogan: "Defend the Righteous.") The place, all cavernous rooms filled with Roman statues and pagan imagery, looks like the lair of a '70s Bond villain. Outside, things look downright dystopian. We're told die-hard Saviors fans are more like a cult than anything else,"

The movie follows an injured rookie quarterback who trains under a veteran championship quarterback whose refusal to step aside becomes increasingly nightmarish. Justin Tipping directs, deploying a torrent of cinematic techniques and high-style visuals that sometimes feel like a high-budget student film. The setting is an enormous desert compound owned by Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), full of Roman statues and pagan imagery, with fervent, cultlike fans outside. Marketing highlights Jordan Peele as producer while the film delivers impressive imagery and atmosphere but suffers from thin narrative substance and a sense that ambition outpaces coherent storytelling.

Read at Vulture