---
title: "Is God Is"
year: 2026
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/is-god-is"
fi1m_id: "is-god-is"
imdb_id: "tt34379307"
tmdb_id: 1380316
wikidata_id: "Q135742878"
fi1m_score: 74
critics_score: 76
critics_reviews: 10
published: "2026-09-24T19:51:44.524907+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-24T19:51:46.839746+00:00"
region: "EC"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Is God Is (2026)

Directed by Aleshea Harris · 1h 40m · Drama, Thriller

## Identity

Is God Is

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/is-god-is
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** is-god-is
- **IMDb ID:** tt34379307
- **TMDB ID:** 1380316
- **Wikidata ID:** Q135742878
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34379307/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1380316, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q135742878

**Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 76 from 10 reviews

*In a sentence:* Mother says kill your father; the sisters, being good girls, do as they are told

> Aleshea Harris’s first film sends twin sisters west to kill the father who burned them, and while it is on the road with Kara Young and Mallori Johnson it is fierce, funny and alive. The look does not always keep up with the writing.

## Synopsis

Twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson) have carried burn scars since a house fire when they were children, and have grown up believing their mother died in it. Ruby (Vivica A. Fox) is alive, in a hospital bed in the South, and dying, and she has one instruction for her daughters: find the father who set the fire, and make him dead. Real dead. The sisters set out west with a bag and no plan to speak of. On the way they find his lawyer, Chuck Hall (Mykelti Williamson), and learn that the man they are hunting (Sterling K. Brown) has a new wife, Angie (Janelle Monáe), a new house and twin sons of his own, Scotch (Xavier Mills) and Riley (Justen Ross).

## Review

Aleshea Harris’s *Is God Is* has the bones of an old story. Twin sisters, burned as children in a fire their father set, are summoned by a mother they thought dead and told to kill him. That is a revenge story in the oldest shape there is: a wrong, a road, a reckoning at the end of it. Harris, writing and directing her first film, knows the shape and does not pretend otherwise. What she adds is the mother, whom the girls have always called God, and the question of what you owe a god who turns out to be a dying woman in a hospital bed.

Kara Young and Mallori Johnson carry it. Young’s Racine is the one who wants this, all forward motion, hands never still, a grin that arrives a second before the violence does. Johnson’s Anaia is the one who keeps asking whether they have to, and keeps getting in the car anyway. The scenes between them on the drive west, sharing food, needling each other, going quiet, moved us more than the plot had any right to. Harris writes them as people who have only ever had each other and are not sure that was enough.

Vivica A. Fox has one long scene as Ruby, most of it flat on her back, and she makes the instruction to kill sound like a bedtime story. Sterling K. Brown, when the film finally gets to him, plays the father as a soft-spoken man who has built a calm life on top of what he did and would prefer not to be reminded. He is the best thing in the last third. Every line is reasonable and every one of them is a threat.

Alexander Dynan shoots the South dim and close, lamps and curtains, and the West in hard white daylight with too much sky, so the sisters look smaller the nearer they get to their target. Freyja Bardell’s design of the father’s house is clean and beige and expensively empty. Jay Rabinowitz cuts the killings short: a swing, a cut away, a face. The first one made us flinch, and we were glad the film did not let us enjoy it for long. Moses Sumney and Joseph Shirley score it mostly with voices, wordless and low, and it works best when it is barely there.

What does not work is the middle. Once the sisters leave Ruby’s bedside, the film becomes a series of encounters, and the people they encounter are ideas before they are people. Mykelti Williamson’s lawyer, Chuck Hall, gets the funniest scene in the film and then vanishes. Janelle Monáe’s Angie, the father’s new wife, and the twin sons Scotch (Xavier Mills) and Riley (Justen Ross) are there to rhyme with the sisters, and the rhyme is the whole of them. Erika Alexander turns up as a woman called Divine, and the name tells you what the film wants from her. They make their points and move on.

The look is uneven, too. There are images here that belong to nobody else, but there are also long stretches where the camera sits and waits for the dialogue to finish, and the dialogue, which is heightened, rhythmic and often funny, wants a room built to match it. This is where most critics divide: some found the film dazzling, a couple found it flat. We were somewhere between. The words are ahead of the pictures for most of the running time, and the pictures catch up about twice.

The climax goes where you knew it would from the tagline. That is not a complaint about a revenge film; it is a note that Harris has spent 100 minutes asking whether the old shape is enough and then answers with the old shape. Brown makes the ending worth it regardless.

It is an 18 and it earns it, though the violence is quick and never lingered on. Watch it for the two women in the front seat. They are worth the drive even when the film pulls over too often.

*Fi1m score 74, published 24 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like it, and most of them like it for the same reasons. Eight of the ten reviews are positive, and the praise gathers around the two leads: Kara Young and Mallori Johnson play twin sisters, and nearly every review remarks on the charge between them, loving one moment and volatile the next. Harris’s direction is the other recurring point, credited with holding violence, humour and dream imagery together in a first feature without the film coming apart. Sterling K. Brown’s father draws steady notice as a chilling late antagonist.

The reservations cluster around the images and the last stretch of plot. Several reviews find the climax by the book and some of the connective scenes slack. The New Yorker thinks the visual world never quite matches the force of the script, and The Hollywood Reporter goes further, calling the filmmaking flat and marking the film down sharply for it, the one plainly mixed verdict. Otherwise the spread is narrow, and the argument is about degree rather than direction.

## Straight answers

**Is Is God Is worth watching?**

*Is God Is* is worth watching for anyone who wants a revenge drama built on two performances rather than on spectacle, and we scored it 74. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are fierce, funny and alive as the twin sisters on the road west; the middle stretch, where the people they meet are ideas before they are people, is where it slackens.

**How long is Is God Is, and what is it rated?**

*Is God Is* runs 1h 40m. It is a drama and thriller film.

**Where can I watch Is God Is in Ecuador?**

*Is God Is* is not on any streaming or rental service in Ecuador at the moment. It is available in 38 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Is God Is, and is it suitable for children?**

*Is God Is* is an 18 in the UK and R in the US, and it earns the certificate: this is a story about two sisters sent to kill their father, and killings happen. The violence is quick and never lingered on, with Jay Rabinowitz cutting away fast, but it is not for children and the squeamish should know what they are sitting down to.

**How does Is God Is compare to Kill Bill: Vol. 1?**

*Is God Is* and [*Kill Bill: Vol. 1*](https://film.one/film/kill-bill-vol-1) are both revenge stories, but Harris's film is a family drama with killings in it, while Tarantino's is fights first and writing a distant second. Vivica A. Fox appears in both, on opposite sides of the list. Tarantino's is the more purely made; Harris's has the better dialogue and the more uneven look.

**What should I watch after Is God Is?**

After *Is God Is*, try [*Kill Bill: Vol. 1*](https://film.one/film/kill-bill-vol-1) (2003, Fi1m 72): The revenge list done as pop opera, with Vivica A. Fox on the other side of it. Then [*Blue Ruin*](https://film.one/film/blue-ruin) (2013, Fi1m 84): Revenge attempted by someone with no idea how, which is most of us; and [*Thelma & Louise*](https://film.one/film/thelma-and-louise) (1991, Fi1m 85): Two women, one car, the American West, and the law some way behind them.

### Reviews we read (10)

- **IndieWire**, Alison Foreman (A-): Foreman praises the film as a confident, cathartic revenge story that refuses easy answers. She singles out the sisters’ volatile, loving performances and Harris’ skillful blend of ultraviolence, humor, and dreamlike visuals. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/is-god-is-film-review-1235193878/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (85/100, inferred): Walsh finds the film a daring, highly stylish debut that announces Harris as a significant cinematic talent. She especially praises Kara Young’s fiery, entrancing performance, which commands attention. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-05-15/is-god-is-review-aleshea-harris-kara-young-mallori-johnson-sterling-k-brown)
- **The Guardian**, Andrew Lawrence (78/100, inferred): The critic finds the revenge thriller sharp, vivid and ultimately affirming despite its familiar narrative formula. They especially praise Harris’s direction, which builds intimate chemistry between the twins and turns their father into a chilling final antagonist. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/14/is-god-is-review-movie)
- **The AV Club**, Monica Castillo (B): Castillo finds the film a potent, emotionally gripping revenge story, though some connective scenes and symbolic supporting characters weaken its momentum. She singles out the twins’ chemistry and Sterling K. Brown’s chilling performance for praise. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/is-god-is-review)
- **Slant Magazine**, Anzhe Zhang (3/4): The critic finds the film an effective, meditative story about trauma despite a by-the-books climax. They praise its Southern Gothic atmosphere and the relationship between the twin sisters. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/is-god-is-review-aleshea-harris-vivica-a-fox-sterling-k-brown/)
- **The New Yorker**, Doreen St. Félix (70/100, inferred): St. Félix finds the film powered by a bold, heretical vision, though its visual world does not fully match the script’s force. She praises its unsettling reworking of religious ideas and its attention to how perceived ugliness shapes desire, rage, and survival. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/critics-notebook/the-heretical-energy-of-is-god-is)
- **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The review's verdict cannot be determined because the page only shows a browser verification message. Its specific praise or criticism is unavailable. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/is-god-is-film-review-2026)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Jourdain Searles (45/100, inferred): Searles finds the film just short of greatness, with strong performances and a rich script undermined by visually flat filmmaking. They praise Sterling K. Brown’s sinister portrayal of masculinity run amok. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/is-god-is-review-vivica-a-fox-sterling-k-brown-1236595084/)
- **The Wrap** (95/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a stunning, exhilarating directorial debut. They single out Harris’s inventive direction and the leads’ rich, multidimensional performances for praise. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/is-god-is-review-aleshea-harris/)
- **/Film**, Witney Seibold (9/10): The critic calls the film an amazing, stylish work of righteous fury and is eager to see more from its director. They single out Kara Young and Mallori Johnson’s compelling performances and intense chemistry. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/2171831/is-god-is-movie-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Aleshea Harris
- **Director:** Aleshea Harris
- **Screenplay:** Aleshea Harris
- **Cinematography:** Alexander Dynan
- **Editor:** Jay Rabinowitz
- **Music:** Joseph Shirley, Moses Sumney
- **Production design:** Freyja Bardell
- **Producer:** Janicza Bravo, Tessa Thompson, Riva Marker
- **Cast:** Kara Young as Racine; Mallori Johnson as Anaia; Vivica A. Fox as Ruby; Sterling K. Brown as Man; Janelle Monáe as Angie; Mykelti Williamson as Chuck Hall; Erika Alexander as Divine; Xavier Mills as Scotch
- **Runtime:** 1h 40m
- **First release (the US):** 27 April 2026
- **Genres:** Drama, Thriller
- **Budget:** $15 million
- **Box office:** $5 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgtdkuNFoKk

## Where to watch in Ecuador

Not streaming, renting or buying in Ecuador at the last check.

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, GB, HR, HU, ID, IE, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Kill Bill: Vol. 1* (2003), Fi1m 72: The revenge list done as pop opera, with Vivica A. Fox on the other side of it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/kill-bill-vol-1.md)
- *Blue Ruin* (2013), Fi1m 84: Revenge attempted by someone with no idea how, which is most of us. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/blue-ruin.md)
- *Eve's Bayou* (1997): Southern Gothic through a child’s eyes, a father who is not what he seems.
- *Lady Vengeance* (2005): A woman’s long-planned reckoning, staged with colour and a cold eye.
- *Thelma & Louise* (1991), Fi1m 85: Two women, one car, the American West, and the law some way behind them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/thelma-and-louise.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/is-god-is