Is God Is was a transformative film for me to see; it gave me Black American Southern Gothic, revenge fable vibes.
The use of twins, palindromes, duality, sprinklings reminiscent of the biblical Cain & Abel and the sacrificial lamb, and inheriting our parents violence & traumas. and just the overall narrative of things many of us growing up in a system that purposely facilitates & perpetuates breaking up Black families via institutions and via the incubation of honest to god psychopathic traits supported by a patriarchal system that seeks to displace, destroy, and harm Black women and children. internalized and externalized Black male patriarchal violence that gets passed from father to child and enacted onto replicating microcosms of this structure. Narcissistic abuse and entitled ownership of people as objects. The deification of mother and father in Black households. the smoke of favoritism and respectability flavoring all of that, taken to a literal degree in the film.
the revelry in & of violence, retaliatory or just finding justifications to harm others who are also products of harm themselves. The phrase “aint no fun when the rabbit got the gun” comes to mind but is also subverted in the movie i think. what if the rabbit was just a wolf pup this whole time? The unflinching confrontation of the presence ugliness in Black women, physically and otherwise, contrasting with that simultaneous lusting that only exoticized and hyper sexualized gendered racialized Black women can know experiencing, the hate yet they still hunger for us, nonetheless.
The still being and becoming even after all that. i almost thought we was gon get a cut and dry revenge film but nah, we didn’t but it leaves room for contemplation and self reflection on our own experiences within Black families or the expectations our family members project onto us.
i felt lowkey seen by some Racine’s crazy ass, violent reasoning lmao. i can be that evil & calculating when someone got me pissed off too. She was by no means an evil mastermind tho, moreso feral and lust for a paradigm shift.
i loved when Anaia asked the other twin if he also feels like his sibling lowkey liked the fact that they (Anaia, the more visibly scarred sister) were the “weird” and different ones bc that gave their siblings the excuse to be whoever they wanted to be.
Sterling K. Brown’s performance gave me chills. He embodied, quiet, studied psychopathic evil so well. that man never hurried or rushed once after doing the horrible things he done, and kept a bright white smile on his face. but what terrified me about him was the slow quietness that he kept about him. the way he could mimic emotions to lure those he wanted something from into a false sense of security. it’s stressful watching it from the outside bc I know it but the characters in the movie dont lmao. also that man just fine as hell.
Racine did a beautiful job exhibiting those same psychopathic behaviors too, her acting was engaging. one of my intrusive thoughts watching her was, “bout time we had a up and coming Black female serial killer” lmao! Janelle Monae was great too.
everybody acted down in this film, honestly i felt like this movie gave Black actors a chance to show off their ability to fully flesh out the characters they played, outside of the typecasting insisted upon by the limited white imagination of who or what Black characters and stories can be. this felt fully grounded in the Black perspective and interiority. No unnecessary white characters forced in by film execs to comfort nonblack audiences (as is common for many Black movies/tv that manage to get off the ground) in the movie at all. Toni Morrison would be proud.
i do question the decision in dressing them like they was from Los Angeles when the movie’s setting takes place in various places in the Black South? it adds to the almost dreamy hazy folktale quality of the film with its wide and isolated shots and beautiful framing. also lowkey an ode to Black American mid-century modern home decor lol.
i want to watch it again and again. there’s still so much more nuance & intention can glean from it. Aleshea Harris adds something new, different and exciting to the Black American film lexicon and to US film history as a whole. the fact this was adapted from the original stage play, that she also authored as well? im curious to read more about her creative process and vision.
i think the only reason nonblack audiences wouldn’t see this movie is if they know they cant relate to Black characters or people; they can watch kdramas & the like with all asian casts, high fantasy where every character is white or of color written from a white European perspective, rom coms where every character lives in a bubble of whiteness or no Black people, not even in the background, shows & films in a myriad of different languages other than English, Black Patois, or African pidgin of any kind, as long as it doesn’t center or even depict Black people. Nonblack audiences have proven they can manage those types of media, repeatedly.
but an all Black cast or locale is just a touch too “un-relatable” for their delicate sensibilities.
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