It didn’t take much to get my ass in the seat for this one. Jordan Peele is the preeminent horror director of our time, and even without that caveat, he’s in the upper echelon of Hollywood filmmaking talent, so him producing this film made it frankly unmissable.
Add Marlon Wayans to the mix and a dynamic young talent in Tyriq Withers, and there was no chance I was going to miss one of the creative peaks of 2025.
This Justin Tipping-penned and directed film looks like Venus in the Shell filtered through a football story about the brutality of not only getting by in America, but excelling.
Wayans’ Isaiah White is an eight-time Super Bowl champion in the twilight of his career, with Withers’ Cameron Kade hot on his heels for a starting position and continuation of a legacy of unbelievable accomplishments.
Spectacle is the word of the day, with hyper surrealist and visually maximalist touches merging seamlessly with Withers’ brooding performance.
After Cade’s devastating and confounding head injury, White invites him to his compound for a week of rehabilitation and, quite frankly, fear and bacchanal.
The marketing for this movie has been all dogma, fundamentalism, and stigmata. These visual themes are fleshed out in a taught 90-minute thriller about the meat grinder that is daily American life.
Parents are killed by their own lofty expectations of their kids. Kids burdened to the point of psychopathy by unrelenting individualism and a need to honor their bloodline.
This is Midsommar on literal steroids. Wayans and Withers have a queasy rapport that’s often hard to watch because of how relatably it portrays most Americans’ relationship to power.
Julia Fox is magnetic as always as Elsie White, her brows blocked and her spirit sinister as she preens and prods through a landmine-laden week of training camp with the two erstwhile legendary footballers.
Wayans is particularly histrionic, lending his three decades of comedic experience to a character who makes Pennywise look like Dame Judy Dench.
It all builds to a climax with more than a hint of antebellum undertones. The fraught political climate just outside the theater – this screened within hours of the politically-motivated cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live – added a layer of let’s just say, complexity, to a story about ownership and the terrifying hunt for power in a stratified society.
I can’t recommend this movie enough. Him is more than a hymn for the soul of America: It’s a Revelation.
