English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray once said that Mother is God in the lips and hearts of all little children. Suggesting that in our infancy, we are too young to understand exactly who God is or what God is. Thus, the love, compassionate, caring spirits of our mothers serve our first impressions of God as babies. But what happens when that love and compassion are burnt up in flames at the hands of a violent, destructive abuser? That’s the question at the center of Aleshea Harris’s directorial debut, ‘Is God Is,’ based on a play written by Harris of the same name.
‘Is God Is’ follows the story of Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), two twin sisters who embark on an epic quest for revenge against their father, deemed “The Monster.” As children, The Monster set fire to his then-wife Ruby (Viviaca A Fox) and their twin daughters, resulting in lifelong disfigurement. On her deathbed, Ruby sends her offspring to hunt down The Monster, forcing the siblings to confront a charged family history in a vengeful antihero’s journey.
Vivica A. Fox’s role at the beginning is brief but memorable, appropriately preparing her twin daughters (and us, the audience) for the emotional stakes. In the eyes of Racine and Anaia, she is God, a spiteful God who wants revenge for the injustices done to her family. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson both deliver outstanding, somewhat eclectic performances that portray their murderous revenge quests with a hint of psychological delusion.
The film challenges its audience to sympathize with the sisters’ bloody trial of a semi-necessary murder spree. Not every kill is morally justifiable, but neither is their parental situation. But their pathway is paved by the sins of their egomaniacal sperm donor. Along their twisted odyssey, we meet characters like lawyer Chuck Hall (Mykelti Williamson), who – like Racine and Anaia – is also permanently scarred at the barbarous hands of The Monster.
But not everyone fell victim to this Man’s destructive impulses. Some fell head over heels. Erika Alexander plays a zany evangelist named Divine, who holds her absentee baby daddy up as a mythical super Negro who will return after an 18-year one-night stand. Laugh-out-loud moments like this make the film’s flimsy grip of tone more forgivable.
A Thousand And One breakout star Josiah Cross plays her bastard son Ezekial, who is hellbent on protecting a deadbeat father he never met. Despite building to a thrilling mid-point action scene, it is just one of many storylines that the film never bothers to resolve.
As you see, there are a LOT of layers in this film. Layers on top of layers. Abuse. Religious commentary. Patriarchal normality. Generational trauma. Acute trauma. All of the traumas, really. But there’s also a lot of humor. Maybe too much? Or at the very least, sometimes in the wrong places.
Unfortunately, some of the film’s most memorable jokes are inconveniently slotted in the middle of dramatically tense moments. Not as a beat of comic relief or a nerve-settling punchline, but as an awkward interruption. This is most evident in Janelle Monae’s brief appearance as Angie, the current domesticated housewife standing in Racine and Anaia’s way.
The tonic imbalance grows ever more pronounced as the film races to its heavily teased third-act showdown. But when we finally meet the mysterious man at the center of the whole story, The Monster doesn’t fail to live up to the hype. Played by (spoiler alert) Sterling K. Brown, the character is just as cold, menacing, and ruthless as he’s been built up to be throughout the film. And the scariest part: on the outside, he’s just another dude. He looks like your average father, brother, cousin, uncle… this “monster” is manufactured through the hellscape of normalized patriarchal violence.
The film ‘Is God Is’, based on the 2018 play of the same name, definitely feels like a byproduct of the post-Obama era, when Black pride was more prevalent and Black movies were less safe. That was the time of ‘Get Out,’ ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Blackkklansman,’ ‘Sorry to Bother You,’ etc. And although that was a mere 8 years ago, it is rare to see Black cinema as bold, risky, and self-expressive as ‘Is God Is’ in today’s anti-DEI landscape.
Ultimately, ‘Is God Is’ is a carefully constructed, quirky, Black Girl Magic-flavored revenge thriller. The film is brutal and sometimes a little too jokey, but thoughtful in just the right ways. I cannot say that I 100% loved watching Aleshea Harris’ feature debut, but ‘Is God Is’ was highly entertaining and worth supporting in theaters. I look forward to seeing what Ms. Harris delivers next.
