Is God Is: Film Review

"Is God Is"Written and Directed by Aleshea HarrisStarring Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson, Josiah Cross, Vivica A. Fox, Sterling K. BrownRated R for strong/bloody violence and languageRuntime: 99 minutesRelease Date: May 15, 2026

Final Thought

Is God Is is a strong feature debut from playwright Aleshea Harris, who energetically adapts her story of Black feminine rage as a response to ancestral sin.

Rating

★★★★.5 / 5

Logline

From Orion Pictures:

In Is God Is, two sisters embark on an epic quest for revenge, confronting a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths. The film is Aleshea Harris’ directorial debut and is based on Harris’ adaptation of her award-winning play of the same name.

Review: Eve Burnt the Bayou to the Ground

In 1997, Kasi Lemmons’ debut film Eve’s Bayou was released. Coming out only six years after the first Black woman-directed feature to receive a wide release - Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust - it is now considered a classic of black cinema and a prominent entry in the southern gothic canon.

It is a film ultimately about the effect of (sexual) trauma on memory, and at times, the prevalence of mysticism in Black southern culture, but the greater part of its runtime deals with how a father’s wrongdoing and inappropriate, sinful actions invade the relationship between two young sisters and their mother… the sins of the father. In that, I see great similarity between Lemmons’ film and Aleshea Harris’ assured feature debut, Is God Is.

Is God Is follows twin sisters, Racine and Anaia (Kara Young and Mallori Johnson, respectively), both of whom were greatly disfigured as a result of their father attempting to kill their mother. They lived their adolescent lives through foster homes and now live together as adults. Anaia is the quiet one, and because her face is not disfigured, Racine is the "rough" one - "She got all her mean." After receiving a letter from their mother (Vivica A. Fox) they thought to be dead, the twins travel down south and are asked a favor of their mother: to find their father and "make him dead." What follows is the uncovering of family secrets, secret families, and the release of unbridled Black feminine rage.

This is going to sound crazy, but I feel like a lot of newer films forget that there are kinds of trauma other than sexual. Similarly, in film, some of the only recent occurences of a (justified) violent response to trauma is when said trauma is sexual. While it explores an objectively traumatic event, Is God Is smartly avoids straddling its characters with sexual trauma, setting it apart from films like Eve’s Bayou, while exploring rage as a trauma response to ancestral sin. This is a story about trauma, but more importantly, it is a story about rage. To borrow a quote from one of my favorite films, these two sisters are mad as hell, and they’re (rightfully) not going to take it anymore. They want revenge.

This is outrightly a revenge story, not a story about faith (as the marketing has been clear about), but allow me to examine to theological angle for a moment...

In the Book of Exodus, it is said that for those who don’t have faith, as a consequence of disobeying commandments, their “wickedness” will be passed down through generations, and those that love him will receive love, but later, in the Book of Ezekiel, it is clarified that only those who commit sin will be punished. Shakespeare' now famous biblical allusion only interprets the Exodus passage, as do many, in his play The Merchant of Venice: “The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.”

Through the Shakespeare lens, Is God Is can be read simply as the twins’ father’s sins are manifested as physical deformities. To evaluate in the biblical sense: In this story, their mother is their God. Because their father didn’t love their mother, they inherited their father’s wickedness: his violent temperament. God, being all knowing, exploits this and instructs those who love her to harm the one that is wicked because she is a “jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). In the end, those that sinned were punished. Is God Is carries hefty allegorical weight, as well.

Kara Young and Mallori Johnson in "Is God Is"

Harris’ film rightly embraces her story’s theatrical roots, giving the film a unique visual style. The rich interior production design pairs well with the Louisiana scenery. Specific formal elements shine: the editing, specifically during flashback sequences, and sound design - Vivica A. Fox’s singular yet important (and theologically potent) scene is permeated with her character’s braiders’ nails clicking throughout, an inspired choice. Possibly my favorite aesthetic storytelling choice, Harris also includes subtitles to key us into twin-telepathic communication, stylized with southern vernacular and AAVE. These were some of my favorite moments (think rocks in Everything Everywhere All at Once).

It is overwhelmingly apparent, though, that Harris is a playwright, as her story has a strong over-reliance on words. The film feels a bit verbose at times, and she favors literary devices that would feel more impactful through live performance (repetition, mainly). Due to this film being her debut, it feels like she might’ve fallen back on the design of the play and used it as a crutch at times. None of this hurts the film, as there are some elements I enjoyed - the subtitles used for twin telepathy are clearly pulled straight from the play - but I’m now more interested to see a story from her that’s only ever been conceived for the screen.

Kara Young and Mallori Johnson in "Is God Is"

Another effect of its theatrical roots, the film feels episodic, and because of this, the supporting cast members each get a sequence devoted to only them. The cast is stellar, with great performances from Fox, Janelle Monae, Mykelti Williamson, Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown, and a host of young actors. If there were any character that felt superfluous, though, it would be Williamson’s mute lawyer Chuck Hall. I love Bubba down and I'm happy to see him in anything, but I can’t recall his character creating much of any conflict in this story.

While the supporting cast is filled with some of the top stars of Black Hollywood, the bright spots are Kara Young and Mallori Johnson, both in their debut feature lead performances. Racine and Anaia have their own personalities, yet their relationship as sisters is so rich that the pair feels like a character distinct from the individuals. Their closeness is so deeply felt. I am mostly unfamiliar with their work but am excited to see what they do next.

There is also one scene in the film, involving newfound family members, that sat oddly with me. I can't be specific, but in this scene, the twins have to use their sexual powers to achieve their goal. Women often understand when they are women dealing with easy men and know that exploiting the right part of themselves can get them out of most situations, but in a film that, as I said earlier, sidesteps almost any sexuality, you have this out-of-place, out-of-character scene. I think both Racine and Anaia would've been smart enough to get out of that circumstance any other way. This notion is worth exploring, but I ultimately think it confuses an already confident film.

Listen, twins are up right now! Sinners, obviously, did great PR for twins, but with Is God Is, you have another film concerned with connecting us, Black people, to our ancestors, this time confronting them. It’s powerful to have this filmic representation of Black female rage. There’s already so few images of Black women in mainstream media, so to take this notion of the “angry Black woman,” flip it on its head, and turn it into a revenge thriller is bold, and I love it. Eve got her get back.