Two sisters set off to find their father and seek revenge for their mother and for scarring them for life.
A surrealistic road trip drenched in revenge.
Writer/director Aleshea Harris makes her feature-film directorial and screenwriting debut with Is God Is, adapting her Off-Broadway play into a cinematic experience that feels deliberately detached from reality. Whether something was lost in translation from stage to screen or whether this strange, heightened world is exactly what Harris envisioned is ultimately up to the viewer to decide.
What is undeniable is that the film has a personality. From the very effective first flashback, Harris establishes a narrative driven by pain, trauma, and retribution. Yet this is not revenge in the conventional sense. The story unfolds like a fever dream, taking the audience on a bizarre road trip where logic frequently takes a back seat to symbolism, style, and atmosphere.
The Tarantino-esque influences are impossible to miss. The stylised violence, the heightened dialogue, the eccentric characters, and the deliberate theatricality all point in that direction. However, Is God Is is far less interested in imitation than it is in creating its own mythological space.
That is where many viewers may struggle. The dialogue often feels unnatural, but I would argue that it is supposed to. Heroes, anti-heroes, and villains are not written as people who belong in the real world because almost nothing else in this film does either. Their exaggerated speech matches the exaggerated reality they inhabit. Once that becomes clear, many of the film’s peculiar choices begin to make sense.
That said, there are issues. The rhythm occasionally loses balance between the major revenge set-pieces. Certain stretches feel caught between reflection and progression, preventing the momentum from fully carrying through.
Fortunately, the production values remain consistently strong. The cinematography is striking, the editing complements the surrealism, and the performances by Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Vivica A. Fox, Sterling K. Brown, Janelle Monáe and the rest of the cast embrace the material’s over-the-top nature.
Ultimately, Is God Is succeeds or fails depending on whether you connect with its script and the world it creates. The stereotypes it invokes, subverts, and reimagines are central to understanding what Harris is attempting to say.
Confusing? You can say that. Memorable? Without question.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. If you enjoy my work and dedication to film, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
