If you’ve seen the trippy ads for Him — the new sports thriller from director Justin Tipping and producer Jordan Peele — then you’ve seen the whole movie. At least that appears to be the critical consensus. Reviewers found the film flimsy, doing too much while saying too little. The movie depicts a college athlete (Tyriq Withers) who is taken under the wing of a spooky Svengali all-star QB (Marlon Wayans). At the mentor’s remote compound, the athlete undergoes psychological torture to accompany the grueling physical training. There are many set pieces with striking visuals, until the whole things hurtles towards an unsatisfying ending. In others words, it’s American Horror Story: Football.
Critics did cite certain performances for elevating the material. Marlon Wayans is praised for his intense turn, especially by Rolling Stone: “at least Wayans knows how to lace with toxic irony as things get more unhinged.” Julia Fox was also routinely praised for her turn as Wayans’s kooky influencer wife. But overall, reviews found Him to be a fumble.
“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.” — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“I can’t believe I left the house to see HIM. I can’t believe I took the train for over an hour from the north side of Chicago to downtown to see this movie. I can’t believe I stood in line to buy a soda and popcorn at the theater to see HIM. And I especially can’t believe that I sat through the entirety of this thematically lost movie, allowed it to live in my head on my trip back home, and that I’m currently sitting on my couch writing about it. Putrid and hollow, Justin Tipping’s brain-dead football horror film, which somehow managed to secure the backing of producer Jordan Peele, is incomprehensibly bad.” — Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
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“Him’s marketing campaign suggests something akin to a religious experience with its wannabe star quarterback posing as some sort of Christ-on-the-cross-like figure in the ads with the tagline, ‘Greatness demands sacrifices.’ I would add, ‘Movies demand coherence.’” — Pete Hammond, Deadline
“HIM ultimately takes all of these elements and throws them rapidly downfield at what feels like the most unfocused attempt at a socially resonant, allegory-heavy genre movie in ages. Anyone who thinks that the notion of a sports league centered around the financial exploitation of Black athletes and physical exploitation of Black bodies for gladiatorial entertainment, all overseen by rich, white team owners, would make for a compelling horror film will find that there’s a serious gap between conception and execution here.” — David Fear, Rolling Stone
“The sports-centric thriller occasionally verges on horror territory, but it never tips over into the eerie (let alone the terrifying) despite numerous attempts. While it has a few fun visual flourishes, it’s a barely-competent movie, held together only by its lead performers who function less like MVPs and more like an injured athlete’s sports tape.” — Siddhant Adlakha, IGN
