It was in the fall of 2016 that I saw Kicks at the AMC Parks at Arlington and was awed by its story of a not particularly tough 15-year-old boy who starts a spiral of violence after his Air Jordans are stolen. It got overlooked in favor of Moonlight, another movie about Black characters finding beauty and danger in the hood, which also had Mahershala Ali as a wise older man dispensing advice to the young ‘uns. Nevertheless, I noted the name of the filmmaker, Justin Tipping, and eagerly awaited his second feature. It took nine long years, but the trailer for his glossy unlikely hybrid of football drama and horror film called Him got me hyped. Now I’ve seen the film, and I’m sorry to report that it falls well short of the promise of that earlier movie, even though its setup offers some points of interest.
The he of the title is Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers), a dazzling quarterback prospect out of college who’s awaiting the draft until a demon, or more likely a guy in a demon costume, attacks him while he’s working out alone and fractures his skull. With his draft stock falling and doctors telling him that another head injury will end his pro career before it begins, Cam receives an offer from his football idol and eight-time league champion Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) to come to his compound in the desert and work out with him for a week.
Zay starts out as a kind mentor, takes Cam’s cellphone so he can shut out the outside world, and gives him a pretty accurate history of how Native Americans invented quarterbacks. Despite that, Cam quickly starts noticing weird stuff like Zay’s personal doctor (Jim Jefferies) coming up behind him, injecting him with unknown substances, and saying “You’ll thank me later.” One of Zay’s superfans (Naomi Grossman) breaks into the house and tries to crush Cam’s head with a rock, and even though Zay witnesses this, he later claims no knowledge of it.
Squint hard and you’ll see the outlines of the anti-football satire that this movie wants to be. Zay brings in a group of disposable free agents to help Cam work out, and when one defensive player plays too rough, Cam ignores the medical warnings, lowers his head, and nearly decapitates the unnamed linebacker. Zay jubilantly declares, “I’m so fucking proud of you!” while stepping over the defender who is still convulsing on his practice field. Wayans’ comedy experience comes in handy here as the villain, as Zay drags the memory of Cam’s dead father and then boops his nose the way one might do to a small child. The film’s prologue, too, well captures the atmosphere around an athlete who’s burdened by expectations before he’s had a chance to accomplish anything at the top level. Excessive devotion to anything (whether that’s country or religion or football) can lead someone down a very dark path, and that point is worth making.
Still, by the time the movie climaxes at a contract-signing ceremony with human sacrifices and cheerleaders waving pom-poms and Cam’s agent (Tim Heidecker) bitching about the lack of cellphone service, it’s clear that Tipping has lost control of his signifiers. When Zay resolves to kill Cam to protect his own job and screams, “I am football!”, the bit is just barely saved by the bemused “Oh, really?” expression on Withers’ face. Him is supposed to be about a player who discovers that he’s not willing to burn his soul or his family to become the greatest of all time, but it’s too overheated and undercooked to tell that story.
Starring Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans. Directed by Justin Tipping. Written by Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, and Justin Tipping. Rated R.
