There are films that feel manufactured for algorithms, and then there are films like Is God Is — movies that feel handcrafted, emotionally volatile, and deeply personal in ways Hollywood rarely allows filmmakers – let alone Black women filmmakers – to fully explore.
Directed by Aleshea Harris, Is God Is arrives like a revenge hymn soaked in gasoline and desert dust, pulling together elements of grindhouse violence, Southern Gothic surrealism, dark comedy, and deep intergenerational rage. With the movie featuring twins hellbent on revenge, the easiest comparison is probably Kill Bill crashing headfirst into Set It Off, but even that feels too confining for what this movie actually becomes. This movie is about more than just revenge. It’s about what you have to give up to get what you want and the cost of comeuppance.
Is God Is is messy in a way that feels alive.
In this film, revenge is a dish served with spice!
The Cast Does Not Miss
One thing that becomes immediately obvious: this ensemble cast (Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson, and Vivica A. Fox, with support from Sterling K. Brown) is fully committed.
There is no half-performance anywhere in this film. Every actor pours themselves into the material with a level of conviction that makes even the quieter moments feel electrically tense. The emotional weight underneath the violence never disappears, and that commitment is what keeps the film from sliding into empty style exercise territory.
An aside: Sterling K. Brown as the antagonist is easily worth the price of admission with his portrayal.
Without spoiling too much, the film understands something many revenge thrillers forget: a villain does not need endless screen time to become suffocatingly present. In cut-away scenes and with only half of his face revealed in many key scenes, the antagonistic force hanging over these characters feels poisonous long before confrontation fully arrives. You feel the damage in every frame.
That emotional corrosion matters more than body count.
The Visuals Are Immaculate
Visually, the film is stunning.
The imagery throughout Is God Is feels carefully layered and loved into existence rather than mechanically assembled. Desert landscapes, saturated lighting, motel-room isolation, blood-soaked symbolism — every scene moves with intention. You can see the fingerprints of a director who understands how visual language shapes emotional atmosphere. More importantly, you can feel the care taken as the film navigates between black and white scenes, then back to color.
There is something deeply refreshing about seeing a predominantly Black cast directed by a Black woman in a genre space that so rarely gives Black women room to be strange, violent, vulnerable, shockingly funny, and ethereal all at once.
Hollywood often demands ‘respectability’ from Black storytelling. Is God Is rejects the notion full stop.
It chooses chaos.
It chooses style.
It chooses emotional fury.
And thank God for the deliverance.
Where the Film Falters
That does not mean the film is flawless.
There are moments where certain emotional threads and supporting character dynamics feel slightly underdeveloped, as though the movie is moving too quickly toward its next eruption to fully sit inside some of its more complex themes. A few narrative transitions feel abrupt, and there are scenes that could have benefited from better execution. But somehow, even the imperfections almost add to the film’s strange emotional texture. This is not a movie striving for polished corporate perfection. It is trying to leave scars.
And it does.
A Black Revenge Film With Soul
This is not a ‘Black film’ – it is a movie about the human experience that centers a Black family. What ultimately makes Is God Is resonate is not simply the violence or aesthetic ambition. It is the emotional sincerity underneath all of it. Everyone can relate to twins Racine and Anaia.
You can see the love in every scene. Love for Black women. Love for genre filmmaking. Love for theatricality. Love for storytelling that allows Black characters to exist beyond trauma narratives or sanitized prestige formulas. The film swings hard, sometimes unevenly, but always with purpose. And in an era where so much cinema feels focus-grouped into oblivion, that kind of artistic conviction feels increasingly rare.
Final Verdict
Is God Is may not be perfect, but it is unforgettable.
Visually immaculate, emotionally volatile, and powered by a cast that commits fully to the madness, the film stands as one of the more daring genre experiments to emerge from contemporary Black cinema in recent years.
It does not whisper.
It burns.
Triston Brewer is an international film and television critic and a member of GALECA, covering cinema, streaming, and entertainment culture across global markets through TREMG, The Manual, Caribbean Posh, and affiliated media platforms.
