Movie Review: Is God Is

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent thriller. 

In this film, two sisters are on a quest for revenge. They plan to kill their father who tried to kill them and their mom when they were kids. 

This is a dark and tense ride that makes you feel uncomfortable in all the best ways. There have been many movies that have looked at how seeking revenge and the trail of violence it leaves can change a person. However, this film handles it especially well. You can not only feel and understand what makes them go down this dark path. You can also see how this path of revenge affects these two different characters. Though they are both twins who have lived, struggled and survived together while sharing everything, these are still two very different people. We can see the differences in their personalities from the opening scene. One has a massive chip on her shoulder and wants to take it out on the world, while the other simply wishes she could live a normal life. When you see the way that this plays out, the changes in these characters don't come out from thin air. Rather it simply expands on what was already there. The effect is something more shocking and real than many films that deal with a similar theme. This is all helped by the wonderful chemistry Kara Young and Mallori Johnson. They perfectly capture the deep sisterly bond between the two and capture how they can almost bond as one at times, while still having distinct personalities. Also excellent, if in the film for a briefer time is Sterling K. Brown as the father. How calm he is and how he outwardly appears like a nice easy-going guy makes him all the more terrifying. It also speaks to how people like this really are (toxic abusive, violent men) often feel that their terrifying acts are called for because they actually believe that being a man means they have a God given power to do whatever they want with women's lives. This not only makes him scary but provides some real social commentary without ever feeling preachy. All this leads up to a truly shocking and effective ending.

Unfortunately, what keeps this film from being the masterpiece it should be is that it insists on mixing its dark subject matter with some quirky comedy. The comedy is only occasionally funny (often it simply tries too hard) and never meshes with the darker and more serious scenes. This can make this feel like two movies at odds with one another. Luckily one of those movies is fantastic. 

Despite an uneven tone, this film is an excellent thriller and a great character study.