Kara Young and Mallori Johnson star as twin sisters on a mission to murder their abusive father.
One of the most revealing things about any filmmaker is the amount of darkness they allow to enter the worlds they create. An act of divinity in itself, film direction entails determining practically every rule of a given reality—setting the stage not only for the film’s characters but also for the actual audience who will bear witness to their ordeal. The magnitude of suffering, the limits of mercy itself, whether all the pain we see on screen holds any meaning... or if it holds none at all? Cinema, by its very nature, leaves that decision largely in the hands of the director.
Director: Aleshea Harris
Writer: Aleshea Harris
Stars: Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Vivica A. Fox
Playwright-turned-filmmaker Aleshea Harris confronts viewers with truly harrowing material in her feature film debut, *Is God Is*—a dazzling revenge epic and road movie that is as stomach-churning as it is spiritually cathartic. Brought to the screen by Amazon MGM Studios, this bold, genre-bending thriller centers on two twin sisters: Racine, "the tough one" (Kara Young), and Anaia, "the quiet one" (Mallori Johnson). Having spent their entire lives drifting in and out of foster care, we meet the young women shortly before they come face-to-face with their birth mother, Ruby (Vivica A. Fox), for the first time in many years.
"We’re about to meet God," Racine whispers, only to be met with skepticism from her sister.
Upon entering an olive-green room flanked by attendants—are they nurses? manicurists?—the young women find their mother—undeniably majestic—seated on her bed. Her deathbed looks more like a throne, and given that all three women are covered in scars, their story—hitherto silenced—evokes the somber intrigue befitting royalty. Ruby’s face—held in place by a mask—bore the brunt of the damage (whatever that “brunt” may have been), though the rest of her body remains shrouded in blankets. Slowly but elegantly, she drags the young women into a sepia-toned flashback, where a Monster awaits: their father (Sterling K. Brown).
“Kill your father,” Ruby commands, while the image of her defenseless body—set ablaze by the man she once loved, in the home they once shared—remains seared onto the screen. The attack permanently disfigured Ruby and left her two daughters—who fought desperately to save their mother when they were barely more than tiny girls—with scars of their own. It is a vision so perverse that it practically demands immediate justification. Yet Harris places enough trust in the bold, explosive material she has chosen to tackle those high stakes head-on, deftly navigating her film’s singular tone even as the ultraviolence persists.
As she recounts her nightmarish tale of survival, Ruby smokes a joint with total nonchalance, explaining to her daughters: “It’s for the pain.” *Is God Is* functions in much the same way; Harris employs dreamlike imagery, pitch-black humor, an impeccable soundtrack, and even the inherent pleasures of the cinematic experience itself to soothe the unbearable suffering that lies at the heart of her film.
In less capable hands, such an act of tonal balancing might come across as frivolous or exploitative. But, extraordinarily, Harris executes it to perfection, transforming her premise—one impossibly difficult to digest—into the bedrock of a rhythmic fantasy world, enhanced by aesthetic choices that function more as emotional instruments than as maximalist distractions. Much like a more acidic Boots Riley (someone please program a double feature of *I Love Boosters* and *Is God Is* in Los Angeles this spring!), Harris employs bold costume and makeup design—combined with exceptionally clever post-production touches—to foreground the cellular connection binding her warring heroines.
The sisters’ telepathic thoughts appear on-screen as they brush their teeth; when relieving themselves between stops, they are displayed side-by-side in a split-screen view. As they gather clues regarding the whereabouts of the "Monster" from various witnesses—including his lawyer (Mykelti Williamson) and subsequent wives—the girls navigate through faded, color-drained flashbacks, punctuated by sudden chromatic bursts that bridge the nightmarish suspense of the past with the surreal, action-packed chase unfolding in the present. This attention to detail imbues Harris’s hazy fairy tale with a vibrant, contemporary pulse—one that aligns with her broader philosophical ambitions and is magnificently complemented by a masterfully calibrated narrative rhythm.
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