This past weekend, I saw a truly great film. It’s a new movie, an original idea, by a first-time writer-director, featuring a star-making turn by a young, relatively unknown leading actress. It’s full of bad choices, heartbreak and unexpected shocks. It’s dark, it’s bloody, it’s funny, it hits more than one nerve about our culture and society today. It’s a bold piece of original filmmaking that should be celebrated and supported and be the model for the future of filmmaking.
And I’m guessing you think I’m talking about Curry Barker’s Obsession. Except…I’m not.
I’m talking about Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is.
Two very different films. Two very different public narratives. Well, one public narrative, actually. Because no one seems to be talking about Is God Is and everyone is talking about Obsession. I think that’s worth some conversation.
If you haven’t been on the internet (or at least in my corners of the internet), Obsession is this year’s first big horror breakout hit. It comes from Curry Barker, a twenty-something director, with only a short film and a bunch of TikTok skits under his belt. It opened wide on May 15th and it was like a bomb went off. It was already highly anticipated; it had been a buzzy darling since the Toronto International Film Festival. That’s been kind of the pattern for horror movies in the last few years. Something plays at a festival, garners a lot of buzz and momentum and then opens big and becomes a cultural touchstone.
Obsession did exactly that, almost immediately. The movie’s about a young “nice guy” who uses a magic willow to cast a spell on his crush, making her love him more than anyone else. It does not go well. None of this is shade thrown at Obsession. It’s fantastic. It takes a pretty common premise and finds nuances and new directions to take it in. And it really does speak very directly to the manosphere and the prevalent ideas about dating and relationships. It’s a damn banger.
Is God Is isn’t so neatly summed up. It follows a pair of twins, both horribly scarred in a fire intentionally set by their father, who take a road trip to track their father down and kill him. It also upends a lot of what you’d expect from this kind of story. One twin, Racine, is mostly scarred on her arms and back while her sister, Anaia, has most of her scars on her face. And yes, Racine is the guardian and Anaia is the sensitive one, and they both carry deep insecurities around their scars, but it doesn’t have the flavor of something like Mask, they’re never monsters, they never think they’re monsters. They’ve had a traumatic childhood, but they’re also full, living breathing adults.
If Obsession is a banger, Is God Is is a howl of rage and pain that gives way to peace and joy. Maybe not quite as toe-tappy, but no less powerful.
I can already hear the first response, because, honestly, it’s my first response: well, Obsession sounds more “universal” than Is God Is. It hits more of the notes for a wider audience. It’s harder for people to find their way into a story about scarred sisters on a bloody mission of vengeance. A twisted romance is just more mainstream.
But…of course, Obsession’s cast is almost entirely white/white-presenting (the female lead, Inde Navarette, is Latino) and Is God Is’s cast is entirely Black. Obsession takes place in a nameless suburb with very, very few specific regional details. Is God Is is a manic road trip that goes to a Black church, a low-rent lawyer’s office and finally a mansion in Los Angeles. It’s scored with hip-hop and R&B. It is Blackity-Black-Black.
Which brings up the question of what is “universal?” Children traumatized by their parents, wanting vengeance but also an explanation, siblings at odds about how to deal with their family, those are as universal as having a crush on someone who doesn’t feel the same way. Right now, the main topic for internet therapists is going no contact with your parents, confronting the abuse you experienced, the complicated and messy process of growth and healing.
I’ve already seen about a dozen reaction videos for Obsession. It’s a hot button topic, with folks weighing in from across the horror spectrum and it’s already coming up regularly in discussions about toxic masculinity. In dissecting the script, the filmmaking, the hidden hints and Easter eggs. The internet moves fast and I’m sure the attention will fade, but right now, it’s at the center of the conversation about filmmaking.
Spend any time in the company of writers and pretty soon you’ll start hearing about the industry’s fascination with IP, with reboots and remakes. The three biggest movies happening this spring are a sequel to a video game adaptation, a reboot of a franchise based on a toy line and the sequel to a TV show set in one of the most famous fictional universes that already had three seasons. It feels like innovation is in short supply.
So when an original movie hits, the most common refrain is “this is what the people want.” We had it last year with Sinners and Weapons. I’m sure there will be more original movies this year. Obsession fits right in that mold. But so does Is God Is.
When you put the director’s trajectories side-by-side, there are more than a few similarities, but also some very stark differences. Curry Barker, as I mentioned earlier, is a first-time feature director. He and a few of his friends (many of whom are in Obsession) made some really good comedy sketches. Then he made a very good horror short called The Chair. Off the strength of that, he was able to pitch Obsession and get it green-lit.
Aleshea Harris also came to filmmaking from an adjacent field: theatre. Is God Is started as an acclaimed play. She’s been a finalist for the Pulitzer, nominated and won a number of awards, has had productions all over the country. The play was produced in 2018 and was at one time set up at indie darling A24 before landing at Orion Pictures.
Comparison is the thief of joy and I’m not taking anything away from either director. But it also does have some echoes of the old Chris Rock line: Black folk have to fly to places white people can walk to. It’s always been thus, but naming it has power. Recognizing that the imbalance has power. Understanding how the system works for (and sometimes against) you has power.
I’m excited about both of these young filmmakers and will be lining up for whatever they do next. I’ve seen Obsession twice. Is God Is isn’t really the kind of movie you can watch over and over in quick succession, but I’ll be happily revisiting it. I want Kara Young, Racine in Is God Is, to blow up the way Inde Navarette is blowing up.
And I want studios and producers to recognize the clear hunger for original stories, for new visions, for fresh takes that there’s an audience for. They always take the wrong lessons from these moments, but hopefully, they’ll learn the right things and take more chances.
I just hope they take chances on ALL the stories, all the directors, all the visions. Our world would be so much richer for it.
Either way, go see both of these movies, in the theatres. You will not be disappointed in either.