'Is God Is': The Most Unapologetic Black Woman Film Of The Year
'Make Your Daddy Dead' — Why 'Is God Is' Is The Black Woman Revenge Fantasy Hollywood Has Been Too Afraid To Make [Exclusive Video]
For Black women, rage is rarely afforded the same complexity as grief, love, vulnerability, or even joy. But in Is God Is, writer-director Aleshea Harris delivers something far more radical: a revenge-fueled fever dream that centers Black women not as victims, but as architects of their own justice.
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That energy was palpable at the Brooklyn premiere of the highly anticipated film at Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the cast and creatives gathered to celebrate a project many believe will leave a permanent mark on Black cinema. Adapted from Harris’ acclaimed stage play, Is God Is follows twin sisters on a surreal journey of vengeance after being tasked with confronting the father responsible for their family’s devastation. The film stars Mallori Johnson, Kara Young, Erika Alexander, Vivica A. Fox, Sterling K. Brown and Janelle Monáe, with Tessa Thompson serving as a producer.
“I read the script and my mind was blown,” Monáe told MadameNoire Managing Editor Danica Daniel on the red carpet. “When I say a phenomenal script—I’m crying, I’m laughing. And the film, she just took it to another level.”
Alexander echoed that enthusiasm, calling Harris “a powerful person” whose work is poised to reshape the medium. “It’s going to change cinema,” she said before describing her character, Divine, as a woman trapped between healing and heartbreak. “A lot of women, when they get hurt, they don’t move on. They get stuck.”
For Thompson, the urgency behind bringing Is God Is to audiences was simple. “Because it’s an incredible, wildly entertaining, singular kind of one-of-one piece,” she said.
But perhaps the film’s greatest impact lies in what it offers Black women. “This film does such an amazing job of giving Black women an opportunity to hopefully have some release and some catharsis,” Johnson explained. Young agreed, adding, “We’ve never seen ourselves like this on camera. We don’t have this in the cinema canon.”
And if anyone needed a reminder of what kind of ride audiences are in for, Fox summed it up best with a grin: “Girl power. Yeah. But revenge—a dish best served cold.”
Above, the cast and creatives behind Is God Is tell MadameNoire why this haunting meditation on sisterhood, survival, and revenge is unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Is God Is is in theaters now. Alliance Entertainment, in association with MGM, has announced that it will release Is God Is on Blu-ray on July 28.
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'Make Your Daddy Dead' — Why 'Is God Is' Is The Black Woman Revenge Fantasy Hollywood Has Been Too Afraid To Make [Exclusive Video] was originally published on madamenoire.com
