Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I’m trying to get back on the cinematic path this weekend after a month or so of very inconsistent watching, and it’s all starting with HIM today, which I gradually took interest in since I first saw the trailer. What I imagined would be an interesting, novel genre-bender backed by reliable Jordan Peele turned out to be quite the opposite. While certainly novel and back by Jordan Peele, HIM continually settled for borderline watchable and simply the essence of genre fluidity.

Surprisingly, what frustrated me most about HIM wasn’t the out-of-place horror or the patchwork story that didn’t seem to actually serve any of the movie’s intended themes. As a huge football fan, I was most annoyed by the film’s seeming lack of knowledge of the game. This was most evident in the dialogue and interactions between characters that ostensibly know the game of football very well, where conversations sounded nearly identical to the cutscenes featured in Madden and NBA 2K’s career story modes.

The immersion was paper-thin from the opening broadcast of the “USFF”, with inaccurate camera angles, dry and vague commentary, and absolutely no depth or development concerning Isaiah White or Cameron Cade’s respective careers. In much the same way Madden’s story mode tries to convince me that the player I just created ten minutes ago was a highly-touted high school prospect with generational talent using nonspecific dialogue, HIM developed (or, more accurately, didn’t develop) Cade in the same way.

With the sports side of the movie severely lacking, it was difficult to latch onto the story anywhere. The story admittedly didn’t make much sense, either, and spent way too much time in meaningless drills instead of real game action or real, high-stakes horror. The mythical character appearances didn’t make sense, no one spoke like they knew anything about football, and this insanely loud film couldn’t keep me from falling in and out of sleep for its final 30 minutes (after a long school day).

Despite Wayans’ and Withers’ committed performances, I couldn’t ever really get into HIM, but boy, did I try to get out. I had some weird little daydreams that kept melting into the story, so I’m not sure I fully understood the end. Lucky for me, I’m guessing the people in my theater that could stay awake didn’t understand it, either. At least I’m well-rested.