(L to R) Kara Young stars as Racine and Mallori Johnson as Anaia in ‘Is God Is’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo credit: Patti Perret. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Opening in theaters on May 15th is the new movie ‘Is God Is’, written and directed by Aleshea Harris from her play of the same name, and starring Kara Young (‘Master’), Mallori Johnson (‘WeCrashed’), Vivica A. Fox (‘Kill Bill: Volume 1’), Erika Alexander (‘Get Out’), Mykelti Williamson (‘Heat’), Janelle Monáe (‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’), and Sterling K. Brown (‘Paradise’).
“Make your daddy dead. Real dead.”
Release Date: May 15, 2026
Run Time: 1 hr 39 min
Related Article: Mallori Johnson and Kara Young Talk Director Aleshea Harris’ ‘Is God Is’
Initial Thoughts
(L to R) Kara Young stars as Racine and Mallori Johnson as Anaia in ‘Is God Is’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo credit: Patti Perret. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A ferocious feature directorial debut and an unyielding scream of rage, ‘Is God Is’ is one of the freshest, most kinetic, and most captivating films released so far in 2026.
Directing a film for the first time, adapted from her own award-winning play, Aleshea Harris captures the many dimensions of being a Black woman in America – the steely strength, the enveloping love, the crippling lash of injustice, and the torment of absent or toxic masculinity – and channels it through a visually electric, visceral, and emotional cinematic narrative. A mix of literary ambition and B-movie grit, ‘Is God Is’ is bolstered by its two stunning leads and a laser-precise supporting cast as it asks a troubling question: is revenge worth it?
Story and Direction
(L to R) Actors Kara Young and Mallori Johnson with director Aleshea Harris on the set of their film ‘Is God Is’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo credit: Patti Perret. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Racine (Young) and Anaia (Johnson) are twins who inhabit an almost hermetically sealed existence, living the best they can in their apartment by day and working as a corporate office cleaning team by night. They are deeply scarred by life, both figuratively and literally: when they were little girls, their hideously violent father (Brown) set their mother (Fox) on fire, with the girls caught in the flames as they tried to put them out. Racine has scars on her arms and neck, while Anaia’s face is a mask of scar tissue – through which her eyes, somehow still bright, peer out at the world.
One day a letter appears: their mother, Ruby, whom they long thought dead as they moved from foster home to foster home, has summoned them to her deathbed. When they get there, the brutally scarred ‘God,’ as Racine calls her – because ‘she made us’ – has a simple request for her daughters: ‘Make your daddy dead…real dead.’
And so begins a road trip during which they not only meet other people – notably his lawyer (Williamson) and his second wife (Alexander) – who have been damaged by the girls’ never-named father and warn them away from pursuing him. Racine, however, warms to the quest, powered by wrath and an understandable thirst for vengeance: ‘I want to step on someone for once, see what it feels like,’ she says. Anaia, meanwhile, shies away from violence and is increasingly afraid of what will happen when they find their daddy – not just physically, but what it will mean for their souls.
Director Aleshea Harris on the set of her film ‘Is God Is’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo credit: Patti Perret. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
For a film based on a play, directed by the author, ‘Is God Is’ completely lacks the staginess and artificiality that often mars such adaptations. Harris opens up the story as the girls drive doggedly through the blazing heat and endless fields of the South, while creating an immediate intimacy between the twins through the use of split screens that mirror them against each other and subtitles to illustrate how they communicate through glances and facial expressions without moving their mouths. The visuals pop throughout, with the twins constantly in colorful outfits and flashbacks utilizing a kind of sepia tint with occasional splashes of color for a unique effect.
But the film is more than just a stylish exercise in directing. Harris weaves several themes here – the bonds of sisterhood, the aftermath of domestic violence and male anger, and the plight of Black women whose calls for justice are met with ringing silence – into a seamless whole. The film forges a deep emotional bond between the twins that extends to the audience, while plunging them and us into a story that is both transcendent and brutally bloody, yet somehow even finds time in its compact 100 minutes for humor, compassion, and grace.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Kara Young stars as Racine and Mallori Johnson as Anaia in ‘Is God Is’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo credit: Patti Perret. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are absolutely breathtaking as the twins, the two actors crafting these sisters as very different people yet possessed of an almost eerie connection that allows one to know when the other is in trouble or turmoil. Young’s Racine is launched on a fiery column of fury that only builds in heat and volume until it threatens to consume her, while Johnson’s Anaia is more conflicted, more deeply hurt (she cannot see herself as beautiful through her scars), yet somehow capable of forgiveness. Both deliver impeccably modulated, sensitive, and fully empathetic performances.
The rest of the supporting cast is excellent as well – including Janelle Monae in a small, yet crucial role – but the most kudos have to go to Sterling K. Brown. Normally one of the most likable actors around, Brown uses his limited screen time as the girls’ father to paint a portrait of an irredeemable monster with a heart as rotted as a month-old corpse, a man whose ghastliness is only exacerbated by his calm, quiet, seeming reasonable demeanor. He’s unforgettably chilling.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Sterling K. Brown stars as Man and Vivica A. Fox as Ruby in ‘Is God Is’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo credit: Patti Perret. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
When the violence comes in ‘Is God Is,’ it’s fast, vicious, and gruesome – a nod to the exploitation movie undercurrent that pulses through the film and wouldn’t be out of place in, say, a Quentin Tarantino picture.
But Tarantino – and many other filmmakers – would not be able to access the lived experience of Black women that Harris and her stars project so truthfully even amidst the carnage, comic moments, and visual playfulness. In the end, ‘Is God Is’ is a tragedy; even if Anaia and Racine win, there’s a heartbreaking sense throughout this outstanding motion picture that they still may lose. Even satiating one’s rage doesn’t always mean victory.
‘Is God Is’ receives a score of 90 out of 100.
(L to R) Kara Young stars as Racine and Mallori Johnson as Anaia in ‘Is God Is’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photo credit: Patti Perret. © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
What is the plot of ‘Is God Is’?
Twin sisters with disfiguring burn scars are ordered by their bedridden mother to kill their abusive father who caused their scars. They must decide whether to seek vengeance or find mercy.
Who is in the cast of ‘Is God Is’?
- Kara Young as Racine
- Mallori Johnson as Anaia
- Sterling K. Brown as the Man
- Vivica A. Fox as Ruby
- Janelle Monáe as Angie
- Erika Alexander as Divine
- Mykelti Williamson as Chuck Hall
- Josiah Cross as Ezekiel
- Xavier Mills as Scotch
- Justen Ross as Riley
- Nuri Barnes as young Racine
- Navali Barnes as young Anaia
‘Is God Is’ opens in theaters on May 15th.
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