'HIM' Is A Non-Starter | Defector

"The camera shows a pressure gauge inching along clockwise, when an iPhone notification sound dings and we hear a concerned voicemail from Cade's mother. "Don't feel pressure to do anything that could risk your future," she advises, as a tight montage shows an increasingly strained Cade doing what is essentially a phoned-in, nine-second Joker impersonation: banging his head on the walls, smiling maniacally, and writing in blood on the porthole."

"HIM finds Cade (Tyriq Withers) on the precipice of a professional career, a prospect made somehow uncertain by a concussion that prevents him from taking part in the combine. Instead, his path to the pros necessitates linking up with his childhood idol, star QB Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), for a week of training at his mysterious desert compound. That's where things go off the rails and eventually get gory."

"A fine premise, sure, although HIM winds up a categorical failure because the movie is incapable of engaging with a single idea beyond the level of mere cliche, and its sole mode of expression is cynical pastiche, a TikTokified edit of something that only loosely resembles a movie. The result, in both form and substance, is remarkably vacuous. Director Justin Tipping wants you to believe he is engaging with some malignant, soul-draining aspects of American life,"

HIM follows promising quarterback Cameron Cade, sidelined by a concussion, who travels to a mysterious desert compound to train under childhood idol Isaiah White. A tense hyperbaric-chamber sequence and other unsettling set pieces attempt to dramatize the mounting pressures on star athletes. The film frames a critique of football’s demand for superhuman performance but fails to develop any idea beyond cliche, relying on cynical pastiche and rapid, TikTok-style editing. The narrative dissolves into a hollow pastiche that occasionally turns gory but never attains coherent thematic depth. Director Justin Tipping gestures at malignant, soul-draining aspects of American life, yet the film mostly notices rather than interrogates them.

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