PLOT: Two sisters embark on an epic quest for revenge, confronting a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths.
REVIEW: It’s almost impossible to watch Is God Is and not think about Kill Bill. I’m not even going to pretend that comparison isn’t sitting right there. Two women on a revenge mission. A list of people who need to pay. A bloody road trip. Big swings in tone. Music drops that make the movie feel like it was dug out of some grimy old exploitation shelf. It’s all there.
This isn’t just Kill Bill without martial arts.
It’s an easy comparison, and I can’t fault you for thinking it, but it also doesn’t fully explain what Aleshea Harris (in her theatrical film debut) is doing here. Is God Is starts like a grindhouse revenge movie, then gets dustier, meaner, and weirder as it goes. By the final third, it’s not really playing like a fun revenge fantasy anymore. It’s less “let’s go kill the bad guy” and more “what happens when rage is the only thing your parents leave you?”
The story follows twins Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), who were badly burned in a fire when they were kids. They’ve grown up with those scars on their bodies and in the way the world looks at them. Racine is the sharper one. She’s angry, funny, mean when she needs to be, and ready to turn every awful thing that’s happened to her into action. Anaia is quieter, more nervous, and a little more aware of how insane this all is. She’s not weak. She’s just not as eager to let the mission swallow her whole.
Then their mother, Ruby (Vivica A. Fox), comes back into their lives from her deathbed and tells them the truth. Their father didn’t just leave; he tried to kill them. Ruby’s final wish is simple and completely horrifying: find him and kill him.
That’s a great revenge movie setup. It’s clean, mean, and gives the characters a straight line to follow. The smart thing about Is God Is is that Racine and Anaia aren’t polished killers who suddenly know how to move through the world like assassins. They’re messy. They argue. They hesitate. They make choices that feel impulsive and sometimes stupid. They’re funny in moments where they probably shouldn’t be funny. That’s where a lot of the movie’s personality comes from. These two women aren’t action figures. They’re damaged people acting out a revenge fantasy in a world that keeps reminding them revenge isn’t clean.
Kara Young is terrific as Racine. She’s got this ferocious energy where you believe she could talk herself into just about anything if it meant getting closer to the end of the mission. She can be hilarious one minute and absolutely brutal the next. Mallori Johnson has the less showy role, but Anaia is just as important. She’s the one who makes you feel the weight of what they’re doing. Racine often acts like forward motion is the only option. Anaia lets you see the fear, the doubt, and the cost. What really sells them as sisters, though, is the way they communicate without even saying a word. The movie gives them this almost telepathic shorthand, where a look or a tiny reaction says everything, and then the text comes up on screen like we’re being let in on their private language. It’s stylish as hell, but it also deepens their bond. These two have spent their whole lives being stared at by everyone else, so of course they’d learn how to speak to each other without opening their mouths.
Vivica A. Fox makes Ruby feel like more than just the person who starts the plot. She’s their mother, but she’s also this mythic figure hanging over the whole movie. Calling her God sounds like it should be too much, but in this story, it makes sense. Then there’s Sterling K. Brown. The movie builds him up as a terrifying shadow before he ever steps on screen. Casting a guy usually known for deep empathy as a monstrous abuser is brilliant, which, in a way, reminds me of David Alan Grier in Tales from the Hood. He plays him with just enough control that it’s deeply unsettling. Even the supporting cast, including Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, and Mykelti Williamson, pop up in ways that make each stop feel stranger than the last.
The violence here is messy and grounded. Harris smartly avoids the weightless, glossy CGI blood that ruins so many modern flicks. When someone gets hurt in this movie, it’s tactile, and you can feel every hit. The sets feel dirty and the violence carries a sickening, almost shocking weight.
I haven’t seen Aleshea Harris’s original stage play, so I won’t sit here and act like I can judge how it works as an adaptation. What I can tell you is the theatrical roots are baked right into the dialogue. These people don’t sound natural because they aren’t meant to. They talk like they’ve been carrying around family curses, burn wounds, and years of hate that finally found a mouth.
For a first feature, Harris doesn’t come out playing it safe. Is God Is is violent, weird, theatrical, and angry as hell. The theatrical dialogue and the massive, weird swings in the third act will probably alienate anyone looking for a clean, cathartic revenge thriller. It doesn’t offer easy answers, and it isn’t interested in making revenge look cool forever. It’s bold, violent, funny, and dripping with Southern Gothic rot. it’s an impressive debut from Harris and one hell of a movie.