Welcome to the Asian A.V. Club podcast series HANG! This week we talk to director Justin Tipping. Born in Oakland, California, Tipping first made an impression in the filmmaking community with his acclaimed 2016 coming of age film Kicks, which looked at toxic masculinity seen through the eyes of a 15 year old boy. Soon afterwards, Justin brought his observational skills and keen directorial style to popular TV series like The Chi, Dear White People and Joe vs. Carole.

This year, Justin continues his look at masculinity through the lens of horror in the film HIM. The story follows hotshot quarterback draft pick Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers), who gets the invite to legendary QB Isaiah White’s (Marlon Wayans) exclusive training compound. But once he’s there, Cameron quickly realizes that the kind of dedication and sacrifice it takes to match his mentor might be way more terrifying than he ever bargained for.

At the film’s core, HIM asks what happens when the athlete becomes a commodity, where the body is the only currency for some players, and once it’s gone, so are you. By filtering that through a horror lens, the film explores the darker business of sports, but with a lot more blood!

Of course, we were hoping to walk through this interesting theme and also find out more about Tipping as a filmmaker.... in a way we do talk about these things, but.... the result is something totally off the rails (in a good way!) The only way to understand what we're referring to is to press play cause you're not ready for what Tipping has to say about what inspired him creatively as a child, or what happens to him when he tells his parents he doesn't want to pursue his studies in economics. It's definitely like no other HANG! we've had before.

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