Donald Glover has always worked in mysterious ways. 2018 was the biggest year for his career thus far, yet it was still shrouded in so much secrecy. He, under Childish Gambino, dropped This Is America without warning, and it went on to be the biggest song of the year. Feels Like Summer also blindsided us, with its video referencing everyone who is anyone in hip-hop.
But it was the whirlwind of rumours and hype around Guava Island that really had all of us stirring. We knew he was filming ~something~ with Rihanna, and that’s about it. Then, ads started appearing on Spotify last week that had people thinking it was a visual album. Not long after that, the link for it appeared on Amazon Prime, which confirmed it was a “thriller” short film. Now, Guava Island is officially out in the world and it is actually a Childish Gambino movie musical!
For all the hype and buzz around it, we sat down and watch the 55-minute visual and here are five of our biggest takeaways.
Glover refuses to box in his creativity
Living in the digital age means artists have more ways than ever to express their creativity. However, we also happen to really love categorising our artists, pigeonholing them into easy, single-word phrases for our convenience as opposed to respecting how these artists want to, or don’t want to, be defined.
Donald Glover says “fuck that” and does what he damn well pleases. He truly is a multi-talent and Guava Island tries to compact all of that into 55 short minutes. His singing voice has improved astoundingly, his comedic timing is as flawless as always and his gradual incorporation of choreography into his performance over the years has paid off as the dance routines – particularly the one in the This Is America sequence – are some of the film’s greatest moments.
It breathes new life into old Gambino songs
Movie musicals using the works of popular musicians have always been about reinterpreting said work for a new story, and even a new generation – the most famous recent example being Mamma Mia! This is exactly what Guava Island does to the four songs Childish Gambino released last year – This Is America, Summertime Magic and Feels Like Summer as well as Saturday which he performed on Saturday Night Live.
In particular, Deni’s (Glover) performance of Summertime Magic to Kofi (Rihanna) is easily the film’s most touching moment. Glover is the showman we’ve come to know and love, as he tenderly serenades his audience of one on a picturesque beach. Last year, that song was overshadowed by the other two singles, but now is bound to enjoy new life as the centrepiece of the entire Guava Island project.
We need to know who Deni is really supposed to be
Nothing Glover does is without intention or by accident. I’m sure upon re-watches of Guava Island we’ll all pick up little nuggets of information or delicately placed clues that reference some bit of mind-blowing history about America, the working class or even Glover himself.
With that being said, it’s intriguing to think about whom the character Deni represents. Is it the jack and master of all trades that is Glover? Or is it the man he puts his music behind in Gambino? Is it neither and we’re just overthinking it?
In any case, the film feels pretty meta. Glover did say that he’s ending the Childish Gambino project soon, and the film’s finale could be a representation of that as Deni, local celebrity, spent his final moments providing the island's people with escapism from their mundane, labour-laden lives with his music. It could be argued that Glover has done the same with Childish Gambino, as he is most certainly the biggest he’s ever been. Now his message has been heard loud and clear, it might be time for him to hang it up.
We’re bloody starving for new Rihanna music
One of the biggest drawcards for Guava Island is it has Rihanna in a starring role. The closer we got to the film’s release, the more we all believed that we’d finally be hearing some new music from our favourite bad girl. However, because the world is a cruel and unjust place, we didn’t get a split second of hearing Rihanna’s beautiful voice. There’s a strong chance that maybe Gambino and RiRi have collaborated on new music given their close connection over the past couple of months, but we didn’t get a peep in this film. The more we’re deprived of something we want, the more unbearable the wait for it becomes and nothing rubs it in our face more than being this close to new Rihanna music and still getting none.
Guava Island is breezy and flawed, and that is 100% okay
It’s hard to tell a complete story in just under an hour, with new characters for us to understand and love. Guava Island does kind of miss the mark there – by the end it doesn’t feel like we’ve made that much of a connection with Deni or Kofi. That being said, the connection that Glover and Rihanna have on screen feels real and tangible. It’s hard not to be enamoured by their love, and how it lingers on after tragedy. Even the darkest moments of the film don’t feel all that dark. There’s a certain charm and hopefulness that cloaks the movie – probably appropriate given the setting – that gives it that indescribable, re-watchable feel. Glover has captured his entire essence – silliness with a brutal punch – in the film and it is soothing to witness.
