In some ways, it’s easy to deduce that Aleasha Harris has adapted one of her plays for her directorial debut. If a film could be a vine and the dialogue the fruit, Is God Is would hang heavy with delicious diction and succinct, unforgettable themes. In other ways, it’s harder to tell: Is God Is hardly feels like the work of a first-time director, if only because Harris approaches every beat with an astonishing confidence and coolness. One could see Tarantino’s Kill Bill in her stylistic flourishes, the righteous, long-festering fury in her heroines. The bones of Greek tragedy are resurrected here, too — but the fact that they’re here to serve an ensemble of justifiably angry Black women turns a straightforward revenge story into the most surprising thriller of the year.
If anything is obvious, it’s that we’ve never seen anything like Is God Is before. That’s clear from the moment we meet Harris’ protagonists, the spitfire Racine (Kara Young) and her shy twin sister Anaia (Mallori Johnson). Each has grown up disfigured by a fire set by their abusive father (an unrecognizable Sterling K. Brown), believing that same fire claimed the life of their mother (Vivica A. Fox), whom they call God. “She made us, didn’t she?” Racine asks. As the fire spared her face, the world has categorized her “The Pretty One” of the pair, a privilege she weaponizes with a bite as bad as her bark.
