Is God Is (2026) Movie Review: Unsettling Choices

Is God Is 2026 Kara Young Mallori Johnson — *Is God Is* (2026) with Kara Young and Mallori Johnson.

Is God Is (2026) movie review summary: The issues of power (and its abuse) and ethics (and its inapplicability) are at the core of playwright-turned-filmmaker Aleshea Harris’ disturbing psychological family drama about two sisters out to find and kill the man who scarred them for life – their father.

Is God Is (2026) Movie Review: Aleshea Harris’ unsettling drama has its 2 (literally) scarred main characters making tough choices

Is God Is writer-director Aleshea Harris is a University of Southern Mississippi grad, which tells us that, alongside Greek and Shakespearean tragedies, the works of Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, Octavia E. Butler, and Alice Walker were heavy on her reading lists. It shows up in her efforts as a playwright.

Her play Is God Is (which opened Off-Broadway in February 2018) won the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award in 2016, while On Sugarland was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2023. Her big-screen adaptation of Is God Is, which marks her feature debut, carries that same “epic folkloric” sense found in her stage work.

Centered on two sisters, Is God Is takes on that larger-than-life shape as the narrative unfolds in the manner of a Southern Gothic tome. Its central elements are righteous grievance and revenge, and, in terms of language, it is both broadly colloquial (especially the deeper we go south) and mystical – in addition to being specific to the sisters, who, as we learn, can speak to each other without actually speaking.

Questions answered and not quite

Now, when we see the Is God Is poster and watch the trailer, we become aware that the sisters, Racine and Anaia (Kara Young and Mallori Johnson), have been badly burned, one even more so than the other.

The question “How did that happen?” comes naturally, and it will be answered. It’s a clear, knowable answer. On the other hand, the question “why did that happen?” isn’t answered in a way that’s clear – and may not be knowable. There is an answer, but one might reject it as an easy way of answering the question without answering the question.

As for Racine and Anaia, they have distinct personalities and predilections, even as they call each other “twin” despite looking nothing alike. However oddly, the notion of a fraternal twinship is not explored.

Homeric journey

The story itself kicks off when the sisters go down South to see their mother (Vivica A. Fox), who they thought was dead. The mother – burned the worst among them – is the one who will provide the answer to the question of how, but, as noted, not why.

She asks them to do one thing for her: To find their father (Sterling K. Brown, in a role unlike most of the ones the This Is Us actor is known for) and kill him for having done what he did to her and to them.

That’s the epic Homeric journey we go on in Is God Is: An actual road trip, with these two young heroic figures, straight out of Joseph Campbell’s books, looking for their father so they can kill him for what he did to their mother and to them.

Eventually, we find ourselves in a tale in which the sisters must think about what they intend to do. One sister is all for it; the other one considers the question of the morality of their task and whether or not they have murder in them.

‘Feeling a certain way’

As we progress through Is God Is, we, the audience, are asked to consider these issues as well. The moral quandary, the choices that they are given, and the choices that they make may diverge from most folks’ notions of reasonableness. But then again, most folks weren’t set on fire by their father. This is true in all these stories. Not everybody in Shakespeare or Greek tragedies does what most folks would do, either.

And yet, in the context of Is God Is, some of the ideas about personal responsibility and the thirst for revenge – and the nature of evil – left one feeling a certain way about the choices, the characters, and who these young women ultimately turn out to be. But then again, one wasn’t set on fire by their father, either.

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Distinctive voice

In Is God Is, newcomer Aleshea Harris’ direction is straightforward and unadorned; she lets her prose and her first-rate cast do the storytelling.

Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are both excellent as the sisters, delivering the at times affected dialogue with a naturalness that reminded this reviewer of a young Cicely Tyson in films like Sounder and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

While some see shades of Quentin Tarantino in Is God Is, I notice a distinctive voice and a style that will have its own shade in projects to come.

Is God Is (2026) cast & crew
Director: Aleshea Harris
Screenplay: Aleshea Harris; from her own 2018 play Is God Is
Cast:
Kara Young … Racine
Mallori Johnson … Anaia
Sterling K. Brown … Man
Vivica A. Fox … Ruby
Janelle Monáe … Angie
Erika Alexander … Divine
Cinematography: Alexander Dynan
Film Editing: Jay Rabinowitz
Music: Joseph Shirley & Moses Sumney
Production Design: Freyja Bardell
Producers: Janicza Bravo, Aleshea Harris, Riva Marker, Kishori Rajan & Tessa Thompson
Running Time: 100m
Country: United States