Sterling K. Brown has a number of fabulous roles to his name (as well as some Emmys and an Oscar nomination), but apparently we’ve never seen him like this. Is God Is, which premieres May 15 on the 2026 movie calendar, is an adaptation of an Off-Broadway play from Aleshea Harris, who also wrote the movie’s script and serves as director. Reviews are in for the road trip thriller, and critics are raving about the performances and Harris' message.
The monster in this movie may be portrayed by Sterling K. Brown, but Is God Is is an ensemble film led by two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young and Mallori Johnson. They play twins who are scarred from a fire set by their father (Brown) in an attempt to kill their mother (Vivica A. Fox) when they were young, and the movie shows their efforts to track him down after their mother asks them to kill him.
Jourdain Searles of THR praises the performances in her Is God Is review but says the visuals fall flat. The acting is vivid, the critic says, but the South is depicted as underpopulated and too neat or quiet for such a story. Searles writes:
Racine and Anaia are more than just sisters in this narrative — they represent all the justifiably angry Black girls who deserved more than the world gave them. Harris adapted Is God Is from her play of the same name, and the theatrical spirit lives on in the film through the rhythm and repetition of the dialogue. The central performances are strong, with Brown perfectly embodying a sinister, otherworldly image of masculinity run amok.
Alison Foreman of IndieWire gives it an A-, writing that Aleshea Harris perfectly distracts from the characters’ unbearable suffering with dream-like visuals, dark humor and a great soundtrack, ultimately delivering catharsis in its “electric conclusion” that can only come from a hideous tale told with confidence. Foreman says:
For all its fire and fury, Racine’s anger can be exhausting to behold, but her creator never permits audiences to forget what’s behind that rage. If a woman being burned alive in her own bathtub isn’t enough cause for revenge, what possibly could be? And yet, Is God Is leaves room for the possibility that Anaia’s instinct to forgive may still be the stronger act. Harris refuses easy answers, and announces herself as a singular cinematic force in the hell her story brings just the same.
Jocelyn Noveck of the AP rates Is God Is 3 out of 4 stars, saying we’ve never seen Sterling K. Brown like this — “a man utterly dripping with villainy, if villainy were in liquid form.” The movie has a lot to say about rage, and that's not limited just to the Monster who tried to burn Racine and Anaia’s mother alive. In Noveck’s words:
Here is where Harris’ message seems to emerge at its loudest and clearest: Rage is not an arena open exclusively to men. It’s not something that becomes explicable only for those who possess the Y chromosome. Yet women, and especially Black women, often have to apologize for their anger, Harris says. The playwright offers no apologies for her twins on their life-altering, rage-filled journey.
Kristy Puchko of Mashable says Aleshea Harris “delivers filmmaking that is so mythic, mesmerizing, and menacing that it's easily one of the best movies of 2026.” Is God Is is a Southern-fried road trip movie that takes inspiration from Greek mythology, Black culture and Quentin Tarantino. And Sterling K. Brown’s wickedness is “goose-bump inducing.” Puchko continues:
By the time he's revealed in full, the twins and we, their audience, know full well what hell he can wreak. So, he doesn't need to bellow or snarl. Instead, he'll make a sandwich and speak in a soft voice. And this choice makes the climax even more harrowing. Harris has built an epic road movie about family, trauma, love, and abuse. She's sculpted characters complicated and compelling, peopling a world of wonder and terror. And in this final act, I held my breath, wondering what would become of these twins.
Monica Castillo of AV Club gives the movie a B, noting how Aleshea Harris uses this story to rage against the domestic violence inflicted by the patriarchy. However, despite the fact that this kind of abuse is still an issue women face, Harris finds a way to inject beauty and tenderness into Is God Is. Castillo writes:
Harris’ adaptation is a strong feature debut, losing none of its potency while making use of her new medium. She keeps the lyrical narration and dialogue intact with an eye towards playing with visual effects and production design to break Racine and Anaia out of the confines of a stage and out onto the South’s never-ending highways, their mother’s throne-like deathbed, and their father’s isolated McMansion. Sometimes, the connective scenes between meeting the people who absolved their father feel like filler compared to the highly charged moments of confrontation. The latter are so powerful, they keep the film’s momentum racing despite any lags and bathroom breaks (and there are so many bathroom breaks).
As complex and frightening as this stage-to-screen adaptation sounds, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, praising Aleshea Harris’ feature debut to the tune of a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score. If you want to find out how the twins’ revenge tale ends — and what they learned along the way — Is God Is hits theaters on Friday, May 15.
