Is God Is Explores Revenge Through Sisterhood and Trauma

Is God Is

★ ★ ★ ½

Is God Is has a very strange title, one I thought I’d understand after seeing the movie. I left the theater with more questions about it than answers, and it seems I’m not alone. The internet doesn’t give a definitive answer either, and even some of the cast and crew seem content to leave it unexplained. It doesn’t diminish the film, though if you’re like me, you spend part of the movie trying to uncover the mystery, which threatens to pull you out of the story.

Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson) are twin sisters still living with the effects of childhood trauma, abuse and abandonment as they remain bound together in adulthood. Both were disfigured in a fire after their dad, credited only as Man (Sterling K. Brown), set their mother, Ruby (Vivica A. Fox), on fire in the bathtub. He forces the girls to watch their mother burn as he leaves the bathroom and smokes a cigarette by the kitchen’s back door, facing away as he waits for the screaming to stop.

Kara Young as Racine and Mallori Jonson as Anaia
© 2026 Amazon MGM Studios

Anaia has severe facial burn scars because she tried the hardest to save Ruby. Racine’s scars are mostly on her arms, often not visible. Of the two, Racine is more prone to violence, especially when she has to defend Anaia from those who make fun of her.

The abuse doesn’t end with Man setting Ruby on fire. Man fled the scene, got caught and was found not guilty at trial. Meanwhile Racine and Anaia were placed into the foster system where abuse continued to strip away their childhood and whatever innocence remained.

Erika Alexander as Divine.
© 2026 Amazon MGM Studios

They get a letter from Ruby, learning that she somehow survived the fire and that she wants to meet them. The girls were barely school age when they last saw her. When they visit, Ruby is in bed tended to by caretakers. She doesn’t have long to live and her deathbed request is for Racine and Anaia to kill Man.

Racine is quick to accept, and to quell Anaia’s reluctance, assures her that she’ll be the one to do the job. All Anaia has to do is help get her to that point.

It’s a fairly simple revenge tale, but it’s told well in a style that feels like it takes cues from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, with larger-than-life characters and over-the-top violence. Yet the film has its own cinematic style that separates it from the dangers of copycatting other groundbreaking indie hits. Here, tongue-in-cheek humor among the extreme violence never takes away from the deep connection we get with Racine and Anaia.

Mykelti Williamson as Chuck Hall
© 2026 Amazon MGM Studios

The sisters continue to bond, learning more about one another, their sisterhood and their own separate identities as the story unfolds. It might be a basic revenge tale, but these women are well written and captivating on-screen.

Every character is unique and interesting, and to the film’s credit, we quickly know what their motivations are. This is the case with both main and supporting characters. That’s a hallmark of great screenwriting.

Racine and Anaia make plans
© 2026 Amazon MGM Studios

Where the film stumbles is in its closing moments. Though the ending makes sense and is satisfying, it feels rushed as it glosses over final scenes that should have been explored just a touch more. It didn’t need much, but such a well-paced film needed a stronger conclusion.

We may not know what Is God Is is supposed to mean, though I suspect it’s baked deep into the story and meant for much closer analysis. If the film gives us clues, one is that the twins often refer to Ruby as “god,” rarely calling her mama. Perhaps it harkens to a quote from 1994’s The Crow: “Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children.” That might be a stretch, but it’s the quote I kept thinking about as the film unfolded.