On a sun-soaked yet brisk afternoon, I strolled to my local multiplex to see “Is God Is.” Ironically, the film emulates that exact feeling: it looks so warm, playful, and inviting outside, but the air is chilled and urges us to retreat to where we came from.
“Is God Is” follows twin sisters and burn victims Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson) as they adventure across the American South to fulfill their mission from God. As noble as it sounds, it is crucial to note that God, in their eyes, is their estranged mother (Vivica A. Fox), and the mission imposed on them is to kill their father (Sterling K. Brown) for his violence towards them. “Make yo daddy dead. Dead. Dead,” she commands them. As the twins venture from Virginia throughout the ambiguous rural Southern region in their dusty Oldsmobile, they encounter big and small battles, all of whom are also victims of their father’s evil. There is an epic-like element to the narrative, reinforced by the ebbing morality that is explored religiously, spiritually, and interpersonally.
Aleshea Harris, known for her award-winning stage plays, adapts her play of the same name into a screenplay and further expands her creative output by serving as the director and producer. She also receives an acting credit for the film and is surrounded by a powerhouse cast that also briefly includes fellow multi-hyphenate Janelle Monáe. Interestingly, “Is God Is” is centered on the complexity of Black women, but one of the main motifs is rooted in the consequences of a Black man’s oversaturated masculinity, specifically in how he leaves scars long after he moves on.
What’s left unspoken, those serious conversations between the twins only communicated through glances and telepathy, is what makes their bond so believable. Throughout the film, captions would dance across the screen to narrate their inner dialogue, and the film’s actual narrator would rotate among the characters. While I am curious about how that took shape in the play, Harris’s creative liberty bridges the story to its new medium without blatantly spelling everything out to its audience. Brought to the big screen, each character weilds the power of facial expressions and body language to say the unsaid. There is tension in every tight-lipped smile and sorrow in every eyebrow furrow. This decision also contributes to an omniscient perspective that shapes one’s perception of the movie’s truth and takeaway: that goodness and evil are conscious choices.
While on the surface, “Is God Is” is about revenge, it renders a duality on the matter through its main characters. Of the twin stereotypes (either completely the same or totally opposites), Racine and Anaia are “yin and yang.” I, like Anaia, tend to hold on to the hope that, deep down, people are inherently good, but I, unlike her, reject this naivety only because of the broader understanding I have as an onlooker. Racine is always at the ready; at times, she’s defensive by default yet crucial in their survival, since forever. Like her, I am my father’s daughter. Their ability to balance one another out blossoms in unexpected ways. The story is navigating something heavier than karma, and by the end, I can’t help but feel conflicted.
Despite the strength of the main characters’ development and the excellent performances, it’s a shame the camera doesn’t linger a little longer. The visual storytelling of “Is God Is” does not fully match the script’s layered tone and themes; the lens keeps its cards close to its chest. Production design and setting (and costuming, hair, and makeup) preserve the overall aesthetic, but the quick cuts and close-ups create a somewhat claustrophobic pace, causing us, like the twins, to lose sight of the actual mission. Like the static, straight-on view of a production on the stage, we see what they want us to see and make inferences accordingly. However, the film’s framing is both its shortcoming and its strongest consistency. In particular, when dialed in on its antagonist, we see his being in fragments but feel his malicious behavior in full.
As the story bounces through time, giving backstory as it moves forward, it utilizes a vintage sepia filter to create distinction. “Is God Is” has a strategic sound design that isolates and enhances vocal clarity. Perhaps it is Harris’ theatrical background, with a strong emphasis on pronunciation, but the soft echoes and grand volumes are what lend the film its thriller classification. I suppose the blood splatter and unflinching violence from every single character has something to do with that, too, but the subliminal signaling sends shivers down more of my senses.
In “Is God Is,” it’s evident that Harris has been influenced by works of greats like Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) and Octavia Butler (Parable of the Sower), as well as the photographer Deana Lawson. Yet, this does not detract from the originality of bringing her story to the silver screen and from her steady weaving of creative techniques. Harris, without a doubt, has something to say, and in only her first feature, she has a grasp on how to say it.
