[The following story contains spoilers from Is God Is.]
A great playwright does not always make a great filmmaker, but Aleshea Harris proves the path is there. Making her feature screenwriting and directing debut with Is God Is, an adaptation of her play which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Harris is behind one of the year’s wildest and most acclaimed films, sitting at a 97 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
With inspirations ranging from ancient Greek tragedy to the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou, Is God Is brings a classic revenge-narrative structure to the always bloody, brutally funny, violently sad story of twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), who go on the hunt for their father (Sterling K. Brown) at their mother’s request after learning that his physical abuse is the reason for their disfiguring scars from childhood. Along the way, they encounter a range of his acquaintances, played by the likes of Mykelti Williamson, Janelle Monáe and Erika Alexander.
Harris introduces an audacious cinematic language all her own, one that might take a little longer for audiences to catch onto — in a wide release of about 1,500 theaters, it brought in just $2.2 million over opening weekend — but has landed with those who’ve given it a chance, earning strong audience scores across the board. In a spoilery conversation, Harris detailed her process of transferring the film from stage to screen, her biggest learning curves behind the camera, and what it meant to tell a revenge story about Black women.
