Overview
- Aleshea Harris’s feature debut Is God Is, adapted from her 2018 play, is playing in U.S. theaters and has earned near‑universal critical praise on review aggregators.
- The casting of Sterling K. Brown as an explicitly monstrous antagonist provoked social media backlash and calls for a boycott from some Black men who object to that portrayal.
- Brown and Harris have publicly defended the choice, with Brown saying he took the role to support a creative script that centers Black women and Harris rejecting comparisons to Quentin Tarantino.
- Despite strong reviews and audience scores, the film has made only modest theatrical returns, reported at roughly $3 million, a shortfall critics link to limited marketing from Amazon MGM Studios.
- The project’s production highlights Black women’s authorship—Harris wrote and directed and the film was green‑lit and produced by notable Black women—which critics say frames the story as an exploration of Black women’s rage, revenge and trauma.