MOVIE TRAILER: "Is God Is" Trailer Drops: Sisters Seek Revenge On Father Who Set Them On Fire As Babies

The trailer to the adaptation to Aleshea Harris’ play is just more Hollywood schlock to pin down the black man and make him out to be a monster. The Color Purple fueled this fire and it continues to burn because it is digestible to white audiences, especially.

From the story alone, it looks like a father set his wife on fire and scorched his two young daughters. They are now on a quest to find him and take vengeance against him. Where are the positive images of black father figures like the kind Will Smith and Denzel Washington have played?

It’s expected that Sterling K. Brown will play his role with equal amounts of menace and excitement. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson appear poised and ready to chew up the scenery. This looks like Precious 2, though. Any chance to denigrate the black man and the black father is at the tip of some black women’s pens.

The plot seems to be straightforward. In their act for revenge they meet a host of other characters to either impede their progress or slow their roll.

With the constant barrage of piss poor parents who don’t need to be fathers in real life, there doesn’t need to be a reflection of that part of reality in a feature film.

Is God Is seems like another way of saying, “Listen black man, you don’t have the competence or compassion to be a father, give it up and let the woman raise the children.”

What shines through in this particular picture is the idea that black women become empowered only at the expense of disrespecting black men, namely fathers.

The tone of the picture seems like a Tarantino film or those track-em-down seventies movies. It’s a road trip and a bloody mish mash of styles. You don’t even need to see the movie to catch the gist of it. It portends a string of other movies depending on its box office appeal. Mostly, it will cater to 18-49 year-old women and black men who had a fractured or nonexistent relationship with their fathers.

To consider the reality of the portrayals of black fathers in Hollywood, it’s a shame that Miss Harris didn’t write a story about how strong black men take care of their children. Where is the knight in shining armor who can whip up a Thanksgiving meal and show his children how to ride a bike? Those men are hardly ever seen on the big screen.

This movie looks and feels like a hot mess, no pun intended. This is what inspires the phrase “burn Hollywood burn!” Now, the pun is intended. What Is God Is projects is a thought that only the black woman can raise children. The man is either in prison, strung out on drugs, or just incapable of rearing the young. When will the depictions of black fathers be a clean, idealized version of the men who actually exist?

While it is beautiful for a black woman to raise the children by herself, it is still a stretch for Hollywood to display single black fathers. It’s too much trouble to convince the theaters and the executives to showcase a competent black man raising a family on his own even for a few years.

It is within the limits of the movie-making business to at least have a horrific depiction of Foundational Black American (FBA) fathers for a generation to embrace. Look how many incarnations of Purple there are: it’s a novel, a film, a musical, and an updated film. It’s a surprise there’s no amusement park ride or playing cards and board games dedicated to it.