Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is gives good reason for one of civilization’s biggest sins. There are fewer moral ills in global mythology worse than killing one’s parents. Germanic lore tells of the dwarf Fafnir, who killed his father from greed and was consequently transformed into a dragon. Patricide and Matricide make up the first two of Buddhism’s Five Great Offenses, which should be avoided at all costs because of their heinous karmic impacts. One of the greatest tragedies in Greek literature (one of the greatest plays in Western literature overall) is Oedipus Rex, Sophocles’ masterpiece about the Theban king Oedipus who killed his father Laius and unwittingly married his mother, Jocasta, both acts considered damnable tragedies. The tragedy in Rex underscores other traditions’ implicit lesson that patricide is a deep violation of the natural order. A heavy action that could only be justified in these frameworks if one’s father committed a sufficiently heinous act.
While Is God Is strikes a vastly different tale than Sophocles’ famed Rex, it’s likely to have been on writer-director-playwright Aleshea Harris’ mind. Her other most lauded play, On Sugarland, is a loose adaptation of two other Sophocles masterworks, Philoctetes and Antigone. She’s clearly well-versed in Sophocles’ works of Ancient Greek drama. In Is God Is, a pair of twin young women are tasked with killing their father. Believe me, his act was sufficiently heinous.
Aleshea Harris adapts and directs her own award-winning play for Is God Is, and it works. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are wonderful as the twin sisters, while Sterling K. Brown is nightmare fuel as the evil father, “the Monster.” The film’s ending has some issues in execution and import, but it’s overall a thrilling tale that’s loaded with style and strong directorial choices.
Stunning Performances Anchor Is God Is
Is God Is follows twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), inseparable twin sisters with significant burn scars who grew up in foster homes. As young girls, their father (only named Monster, and played by Sterling K. Brown) one day violated the restraining order of their mother, Ruby the God (Vivica A. Fox). He knocked her out, placed her in the bathtub, then set her on fire. Both girls, now burned themselves from efforts to save her, grew up without her, while he escaped legal justice and disappeared. Now adults, the sisters are summoned by the severely burned and bedridden Ruby after some time. She tasks them with a serious mission: find their father, and kill him.
The twins are the film’s core, and both lead performers are exceptional. Kara Young is charismatic and aggressive as “Racine the Rough One,” the sister who took it upon herself to protect the other, sweeter, meeker sister. Mallori Johnson embodies “Anaia the Quiet One” with grace and a soft kindness, a bit more tentative due to living with greater visible facial burns. Young and Johnson capture the sisters’ differences well as they pertain to their murderous task from “God,” and they successfully read like siblings with a complex lifetime of close experience between them.
While Sterling K. Brown takes some time to be present on the screen, the presence of “Monster” looms large. When he’s finally present, Brown is genuinely chilling. “Monster” is often eerily calm. It’s the sort of calm the forest gets when animals try to hide; it isn’t peaceful. It’s a sign that something’s wrong, and dangerous. Brown’s ability to alternate between friendly-calm and menacing-calm, sometimes punctuated by sudden and vicious violence, is terrifying. He’s excellent here, though his relatively little screentime will make a viewer want to see him as a proper horror villain. That said, each of his scenes is memorable and well-written.
The film’s ending has some issues in execution and import, but it’s overall a thrilling tale that’s loaded with style and strong directorial choices
Aleshea Harris Has Undeniable Style In Is God Is
Harris’s adaptation of her own award-winning play has style to spare. Strong use of imagery and needle drops to amplify the story’s intensity, with exceptional pacing that punctuates the tale’s gradually building sense of dread as they approach their evil father. There’s a visible Tarantino influence in these elements between the needle drops, the ambiguous retro setting, periodic pivots to black and white flashbacks, quoteable one-liners (“You ain’t sh*t, devil!”), and occasional elevated violence. They’re used well here and work well for this story. The centering of the stories and perspectives of these young Black women gives the film a flair and perspective that easily escapes mere vengeance-driven Tarantino pastiche. Harris’ adaptation of the screen genuinely captures what makes films a unique cinematic medium, and it’s clear she already has a strong directorial identity.
The film’s biggest weaknesses are in the ending, which is regrettably hard to fully explore without spoilers. The third act overall boasts strong dialogue, good pacing, and sustains considerable tension, and when the sisters finally encounter “Monster” (not a spoiler, given it’s the final scene of the trailer), it’s intense and packed with meaning. That said, the sisters are written with highly variable levels of strength and combat prowess. Sometimes, for example, a sister can use a household tool as a weapon backed by extraordinary strength, while the same woman is unable to muster the strength to help her twin out of a jam later in the film. There are other subtle inconsistencies, but none that rival the importance of those moments. Additionally, the film’s finale breaks the careful pacing of the prior film, cutting out far too quickly in the ending in a way that undercuts the impact and believability of the finale. It’s hard to suspend disbelief, and it feels rushed.
All that said, Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is is an overall well-scripted story, anchored by a pair of excellent actresses alongside a stunner of a villainous turn from Sterling K. Brown. Its cinematic influences aren’t particularly hidden, but the material itself and confident choices throughout elevate the tale as more than a mere Tarantino-esque yarn. It’s good, consistently a lot of fun, and Harris clearly showcases directorial skill. The ending is a bit of a damper, feeling strongly like it wasn’t consistently set up or carefully edited as other important moments of the film, but that doesn’t keep the film from being a successful must-see original vision.
Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is hits theaters Friday, May 15, 2026.
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