Guava Island

Yup all you negative reviewers...it's NOT a movie. It's an experiment that's never been done. A chance was taken and I enjoyed it. I was left wanting more. But for a first time project like this, and nothing to compare it too, I say relax and just enjoy the music.

It's unfortunate that all the creativity ran out of steam just when the main plot kicked off, because all the familiarity could have been easily unfelt with a bit of the imagination Hiro Murai embellished the first act with; the animated intro sequence is a case in point. Nevertheless, almost everything else in this little movie is amazing; Donald Glover's vibrant performance, and his electrifying songs, Rihanna's charisma and lovely narration voice-over, Letitia Wright's appeal (her character is completely unnecessary, though), the lively and colourful cinematography that made the titular island anything but fictional place, just to name a few!

(7.5/10)

Really this sub-feature length piece simply does not work. Not only is it derivative and unoriginal, it simply seems to be a bunch of music videos mindlessly put tougher as a "film."

And you know even the makers have no faith in it given the number of shill reviews and upvotes from single use accounts

So I'm a huge Gambino fan to the point where if anything Gambino related comes out, I'll automatically try to find all the good in it instead of the bad. Often times, I let my fandom get in the way of quality, but Glover is a man of quality. When I heard this project was going to happen, I had high hopes for it. All I knew is Hiro Murai was going to direct it which was a great sign, Glover would be in it, and he's bringing Rihanna along for the ride, how can he mess this up. And while it is his project, it's written by his brother. I liked this film, but I'm not letting my fandom get in the way of how I genuinely see this film as a film. It was structurally broken at points and I feel as if it used the excuse of being short to get away with less story telling. But the animated story at the beginning didn't do much for me and felt very cliche. The film only strived with the way it was shot and the music scenes, however since his music plays at points out of nowhere, it takes away from the movie and seems like either filler or just Donald giving us what he has already given us and that's a bit disappointing to me. Nothing in this film was new music wise and it feels like wasted potential to do something big. But again, I am a fan, and I overall enjoyed it, it does however have many flaws that hold it down from being way better. So would I recommend it? That depends, if you're a Glover/Gambino fan then go check it out, but if you don't like him, or are not a fan of his, you might want to steer clear from this one. 3/5

I thought that the writing was pretty much average, but in this case, and knowing Gambino´s work as well as Murai's, I can tell that this is case in which quality of the story can be overshadowed by excellent direction and photography as well as an ambitious way to merge Gambino's music with the story itself.

It puts you in a pretty relaxing tropical vibe throughout all 55 minutes of runtime (which I find an excellent format to make movie, I would like to see more short films like this), and of course Gambino's always quirky characters makes you rapidly fall for him and his dreams.

Some things were predictable in the way the story was told, others didn't make much sense to me, but I find it to be an entertaining movie that brings you some joy and offers you a refreshing experience in the greater scheme of cinema.