Is God Is

Verdict

A stylish, darkly funny revenge thriller with a strong theatrical voice, built around Black women’s rage, family trauma, and mythic escalation. It sounds especially rewarding if you like genre films that mix vengeance with spiritual, Southern Gothic, and comic-book energy.

Best for

• fans of revenge thrillers with a literary or mythic edge
• viewers interested in Black women-centered stories about rage and survival
• people who like stylized, dialogue-driven indie genre films
• audiences open to dark humor inside violent material

Skip if

• you want a straightforward, realistic thriller
• you’re uncomfortable with intense violence and bloodlust
• you prefer restrained emotional drama over heightened, symbolic storytelling
• you dislike films that lean into stylization and tonal swings

Overview

Is God Is looks like a debut that arrives already fully formed: fierce, stylized, and unafraid of excess. The setup is simple revenge, but the execution seems to widen into something stranger and richer, where family history, religion, and inherited violence all collide. The result feels less like a conventional thriller than a modern myth told with a sharp, theatrical pulse.

Worth noting

What stands out most is the film’s refusal to soften its women. The reviews point to justified rage, moral complexity, and a rare willingness to let Black women be messy, funny, dangerous, and unsentimental. That combination gives the movie its bite, and likely explains why it plays as both cathartic and unsettling.

Bottom line

The tone sounds playful even as it gets brutal, with a streak of dark comedy and a bold visual identity. If the film’s rough edges are part of the first-feature energy, they also seem to be part of the appeal: a confident, memorable revenge tale with real personality and a lot on its mind.

Top Letterboxd reviews

motherblanca (4★) · 2308 likes

Wow. Kara Young is a STAR. Casting Sterling K. Brown, who often plays characters with deep moral authority, as the villain is such an inspired choice. Black women’s rage being played straight and not for laughs or shame is so refreshing to see. I’m all for more films that centers our justified rage and shows us acting out instead of internalizing it so we can be considered “good women.” Here for Black women being the complicated antiheroes for once!!

Maritza (5★) · 2146 likes

The devil wears sperrys

demi adejuyigbe · 2042 likes

fuuuuuuuuck yeaaaaaaaah. man i loved this!!! glad i went in blind because the little hints of peripheral marketing i saw do not adequately highlight how charming and funny this movie is. like obviously Greek myth and Kill Bill are two overt points of reference, but there are several points where i felt like i was watching a black Series of Unfortunate Events. absolutely sinister use of Death Grips’ “Guillotine.” deeply stylish and confident first feature, stoked to see what Aleshea

mitra (4★) · 1528 likes

a greek tragedy in the american south

alejandroxpadi (4★) · 1188 likes

Ohhhhhhhh you wanna talk about MOTHERSSSSSS

Themes

revenge, family trauma, Black women’s rage, misogynoir, religion and hypocrisy, cycle of violence, Southern Gothic, female antiheroes

Topics

revenge thriller, Southern Gothic, Black women, family trauma, mythic drama, dark comedy, cycle of violence, religious hypocrisy, stylized indie, female antihero