Editor’s Note: Freeline Media movie critic Mike Fried likes to keep up with those new releases, so he was there for Is God Is. Can this tale of revenue-seeking twins work? Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
Is God Is
4/5
Racine the Rough One and Anaia the Quiet One are twin sisters who were badly scarred when their father set out to kill their mother, whom they call God, by setting her ablaze. The twins tried to rescue her and were badly scarred themselves, Racine on her arm and Anais all over her face.
They had been living under the belief that their mother was dead; but then they receive a letter that she is alive but dying. When they visit, God tells them that she gave them up because she felt that they would be traumatized by her own injuries. God summons the twins with one final request: Kill their daddy, The Monster, so she can rest in peace. Racine is onboard but Anaia has grave doubts. But as Racine says “Imagine our lives if he hadn’t done this” to them.
This is such a terrific film, made even more amazing by the fact that this is the directorial and screenwriting debut of Aleshea Harris, based on her play. It is a revenge thriller infused with a bold sense of humor and loads of heart.
The movie rests squarely upon the shoulders of Kara Young and Mallori Johnson who play Racine and Anais and boy oh boy do they handle themselves perfectly. I am not familiar with either actress, so I took this film as a first exposure to them and they are absolutely wonderful. Young plays Racine the older, and bolder one, yet shorter and Johnson plays Anais as the younger, taller but meeker of the twins. And this difference between them sets up a lot of the tension within the film. And yet there is a true love that sisters, especially twins, have that is purely and sweetly evident on the screen.
Vivica A. Fox is thoroughly outstanding as God and Sterling K. Brown is absolutely menacing as The Monster.
It is quite possible that God was a nice human being when she was young and the mother of two young pretty girls; however, she is not one now. She is a woman, severely burned over her entire body, swaddled in bandages and attended to by nurses and beauticians who braid her hair. It is her outer disfigurement that has made her make the choice to send her daughters on what could be a suicide mission.
The Monster, however, was a son of a bitch from day one and Sterling K. Brown plays him in perfect pitch, in deviance from his usual nice guy roles. Certainly, after burning his wife he employs a lawyer – a very well-played Mykelti Williamson – to get him acquitted of the charges and what does he do to repay the lawyer? He rips out his tongue so he can never speak of this situation again.
Now, The Monster is set up in a nice big house with a new wife (Janelle Monae in a small but good role) and two more twins, this time sons, one who is taller and brasher and the other who is shorter and meeker — sound familiar? But, well, you know what they say: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
So far, this is one of my favorite movies of the year. I lump it together with Project Hail Mary, The Sheep Detectives and Send Help as the most memorable films of the first 36% of the year.
Harris’s script and her direction of same are absolutely pitch perfect. There are a lot of neat touches within the framework and structure of the script in which the twins don’t have to be speaking to communicate with each other and we know what they are thinking thanks to thought words – not subtitles – on the screen. It’s even taken to its illogical but humorous conclusion as the twins think of ways to kill The Monster. One of them thinks “hammer” and the other thinks “That’s nasty.” I mean, how does one communicate “hammer”? But, no matter, because it works so well.
In addition, we often hear some backstory about each character that is presented on screen by that particular actor’s own voice done as a voiceover narration. It is a neat, ingenious little trick, especially when Williamson narrates the tongue-less lawyer’s sorry life; however, it plays out in the final scene of the movie. And it works to perfection.
The film was gorgeous to look at, helmed by Paul Schrader’s most recent cinematographer, Alexander Dynan (The Card Counter, First Reformed and The Master Gardener) and the editing by Jay Rabinowitz (Requiem for a Dream, 8 Mile and Ghost Dog) was also terrific.
While there is violence in the movie, most of the bloodshed is off-screen until the very end of the movie.
Yeah, it is a revenge thriller but ultimately, this is a movie about two sisters, who call each other “twin” who are literally on a mission from God.
Romans 12:19 instructs believers to never take revenge, but instead to trust in God’s perfect justice. As Anais says to Racine, “Be careful with vengeance because you don’t know where the blood will land.”
This is a powerful film that you will not regret seeing. It is a thoughtful yet electrifying debut effort that will not leave you disappointed but yearning for more.
WATCH IT!
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.
