Guava Island review — Donald Glover’s film has more style than substance
A short film from the minds behind Atlanta and This is America, is caught between a musical and a morality tale, and gravely misuses Rihanna
Shot in a postcard-like 4×3 aspect ratio and with an earthy, desaturated grain that lends the sights and sounds of island life a certain timeless and elemental character, Guava Island, a 55-minute film dropped by Donald Glover and his close collaborator Hiro Murai over Coachella weekend, is a reliable feast for both the eyes and ears. That, unfortunately, is about all it is: there’s more parable than plot, more symbolism than story, and the Island Girl herself, Rihanna, is criminally underused as Kofi, the twinkly-eyed girlfriend of Glover’s Deni, a local radio singer whose attempts to throw an all-night music festival are thwarted by the island’s iron-fisted despot Red Cargo.
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