Last year, audiences were thrilled by The Substance, a body horror satire that deliriously took on beauty standards and the gold rush of products that promise people, but specifically women, can look younger and more beautiful if only they buy the right stuff. Anchored by star performances from both Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, The Substance went from a niche horror movie out of Cannes to securing five Oscar nominations and one win.
This year, the movie HIM was sold on a similar premise, but for men. HIM is a football-adjacent horror movie that follows a young up-and-coming QB who goes to train with a retiring legend. In its long and exciting ad campaign, HIM was sold as a horror satire that would explore the pressure our society puts on young men to excel at sports, and the crushing weight of an entire city demanding perfection from its athletes.
But the actual release of the movie HIM was met with a groan and some collective disappointment. Where The Substance was clever and provocative, HIM is obvious and one-note. HIM is full of scenes that subvert the audience’s expectations with shocking acts of violence but don’t actually take the story anywhere new. The script is chalk-full of youthful language, with characters constantly saying things like “He’s the GOAT” or, of course, “I’m him!,” but the script is sorely lacking in any actual insight or even moments of great dramatic tension.
And it’s a real shame, because in its somehow overlong 96 minutes, the film does have some bright sports. Lead actor Tyriq Withers is great as the wide-eyed young QB desperate to prove himself, and Julia Fox gives a hammed up performance that hints at a more fun version of this movie that may have existed at some point in its development.
Maybe the movie’s biggest strength is its visual language, HIM features a number sequences that are expertly lit, shot and edited, including some very cool moments where the camera seemingly snaps into an X-ray visualizer. But maybe the whole thing should have just been a short film or a music video.
Despite its promising thematic concerns, the movie HIM is a dud.
Perhaps the best song on the album is “Drum Show,” a nu metal-adjacent showcase for drummer Josh Dun that features a signature primal scream from frontman Tyler Joseph and a rip-roaring chorus that will please any emo music-loving millennial. “I’ve been this way, I want to change” Dun and Joseph both sing on the track. Another song, “Downstairs,” finally sees the band finish a 14-year old demo that naturally sounds similar to the Vessel and Blurryface-era songs of the 2010s. A personal favorite of mine, “One Way,” is a breezy bit of ethereal musicmaking that is perfect for driving down a highway with the windows down.
For years now, Twenty One Pilots has maintained a small but mighty group of dedicated listeners by making their own brand of music. Their album “Breach” sounds like a band looking back on a decade and a half of music and rejoicing in the many ways they’ve found to give voice to their particular brand of anxious millennial emo rock rap angst. With their yearslong narrative completed and old demos polished up and released, what comes next for the duo from Columbus, Ohio remains an open question. But “Breach” is an unmitigated success.
I hear artistic growth all over Man’s Best Friend, which serves as a powerful showcase of Carpenter’s ability to pull from musical heroes across decades of pop music and tie them all together with her trademark lyrics, full of clever turns of phrase and tongue-in-cheek double entendres. The album is a little bit ABBA, a little bit Christina Aguilara and a little bit Donna Summer, reminiscent of Earth Wind and Fire and also Ariana Grande, soaked in Antonoff-led production that brings in elements of his band Bleachers and his musical heroes like Bruce Springsteen and The Beatles. Man’s Best Friend is familiar and novel at the same time, and it absolutely demands to be danced to and sung along with. It’s a supernova pop album in a year that was desperate for an injection of fun.
Before then, though, Apple TV+ will premiere The Savant starring Oscar-winning actress Jessica Chastain about a digital interruptor who seeks to infiltrate hate groups on the internet to prevent public attacks. The crime thriller comes from Melissa James Gibson, a playwright with experience writing for The Americans and House of Cards.
On October 10, Apple will launch The Last Frontier, which stars Jason Clarke in a thriller about a U.S. Marshall in the remote wilderness of Alaska. This fall, Apple will also stream Mr. Scorsese, a documentary series about Martin Scorsese, and Down Cemetery Road, an adaptation of the thriller novel of the same name starring Ruth Wilson and Emma Thompson.
Will all of these shows be good? Who’s to say? But true to the Apple TV+ formula, they promise huge names in familiar situations, and that’s enough for me to at least check out what they’re cooking over there at the computer company.
What’s especially interesting about season two of the show is that season one occurred in the previous DCEU. To pivot the show into our new DCU universe, season two had to make a brief correction to its canon in the “previously on” at the beginning of its first episode. Instead of the old Snyderverse Justice League showing up for a cameo, season two of Peacemaker switched them out for the new DCU Justice Gang. And just like that, Peacemaker is now in the continuity of the Superman movie.
Though I don’t think anything that happens in Peacemaker is ultimately going to matter too much for the theater-made film entries, fans of the DCU who are game for a low-brow sensibility action comedy with a lot of heart will find plenty of universe details to revel in. But the show is also worth watching on its own merits. Cena turns in a hilarious and surprisingly-moving-at-times performance as Peacemaker, and he’s surrounded by a tremendously fun cast that includes Jennifer Holland, Danielle Brooks, and Freddie Stroma.
Peacemaker is streaming on HBO Max.
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