Plenty of fire in this stylish thriller.
I was expecting the new blaxploitation thriller “Is God Is” to be wildly entertaining and ambitious and it is. And it also is a grindhouse movie that tries to go biblical and poetic as it can. Forget the racism and stereotypes that movies have been fighting against this time; see it as revenge family drama that knows evil when it sees it.
Written and directed by Aleshea Harris, who based it on her own play, we meet twin sisters Racine (Kara Young, soon to appear in “I Love Boosters”) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson from “The Other Zoey”), who have both been partially burned from a fire. Racine has burn scars on her arms and Anaia has them on her face. And yet, together through the bullying and staring, they’re both strong enough to fight back. Mostly Racine, since her sister is more deformed and ridiculed than her.
One day, they both receive a letter saying that her supposedly dead mother (Vivica A. Fox) is still alive. Well, for a little while as she’s on her death bed in what appears to be a shrine where her nurses are braiding her hair and helping her smoke medicinal marijuana. She tells her girls about their father (Sterling K. Brown), who was also the man responsible for their deformities, and she wants them to kill him.
Among the people they come across on their revenge trek, their wicked father’s second spouse is a spiritual healer named Divine (Erika Alexander), who is so faithful that she’s been waiting for him to return after he impregnated her. And their child Ezekiel (Josiah Cross) is now a young adult. So, when is this woman going to take the hint that her man abandoned her and their child?
His lawyer (Mykelti Williamson) has lost his tongue to him and pays a woman to beat him up so he can be prepared for when that monster returns. That’s why he writes on a small market board.
And his latest wife Angie (Janelle Monae) has been transformed into a neat freak by him. She has to keep the house spic and span every day until he comes home, or he’ll beat her. And they have twin sons Scotch (Xavier Mills) and Riley (Justen Ross). I think we can agree that most movie villains will have evil spawns in the mix, so how can we trust anyone in this family?
Throughout this movie, Racine is willing to kill anyone who stands in their way, while Anaia wants no part in the carnage but is willing to be by her side. And the tension thickens as the story unfolds. In her feature directorial debut, Harris presents “Is God Is” with the right kind of attitude and consistency that keeps us watching. Parts of the third act starts to lose their way, but the rest of the film pays off and I think we can also agree that this has a more Tarantino vibe than his recently produced “One Spoon of Chocolate.” And Tessa Thompson, who opened my eyes with “Dear White People,” produced this movie.
Hearing their names for the first time, I was impressed with how much passion Young and Johnson provide for their characters, as their personalities can be similar or opposite as the revenge plot continues. The make-up for their scars is impressive, their words are outspoken, and I like how being twins they communicate telepathically, which is why subtitles are given. And credit must also be given to Fox, Alexander, Williamson, Monae, and Brown for building on characters so worthy of being in a movie of its level.
I was just wondering where these main heroines were when that boy kicked that girl in her stomach in “This is Not a Test” or when there were sexist monsters in “The Housemaid” or “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.” But they’re here now and that’s all that matters. This is a nonstop thrill ride that knows style, dialogue, and violence like the back of its hand.
