Guava Island (2019)

Watching this collection of shots (not a movie or story so much as just scenes edited together) you have to wonder again how these kinds of projects get funding. So many movies like this one have good production values but such awful storylines that you are brought back to amateur night at the writing class.

Fmovies: 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

This was awful. So many sites have been caught rigging and inflating review scores for movies, mostly marvel/Disney, but there's others as well; that are essentially social engineering. I'm guessing this is one of those rigged scores. An overwhelming majority of the 10 score reviews on here are generic statements that can be applied to any movie by Accts that have only reviewed this movie. The only reason I gave it a 5 is in honor of Rhianna's Fivehead. That thing is an evolving ecosystem.

Guava Island fmovies. TL;DR - A pretty average movie with decent writing, a paper thin plot, and underdeveloped (but well acted) characters. However it is a fun movie to watch and you will enjoy yourself for the short 55 minute run time (probably more if you are a Childish Gambino fan like myself)

Plot - My biggest complaint with the movie as a whole. The plot in the movie is virtually non existent and just serves as a framework for events in the movie to happen the way they do. It boils down to Deni Maroon (Donald Glover) wants to throw a performance and the boss of the island (Nonso Anozie) doesn't want there to be one cause he doesn't want the people to miss a day of work. There feels like there is no conflict or any tension (which was probably what was intended) in the plot until around ¾ of the way into the movie where the movie takes a sizable risk that really does nothing in the grand scheme of the movie as it comes too late for it to have any repercussions on the plot. Overall the plot was pretty non existent and is the worst element of the film

Characters - All well acted and everyone looks like they're having a good time which translates into the actors having good chemistry with one another. All of them, excluding Donald Glover's character, are all painfully underdeveloped and it's hard to care for any of them other than Deni Maroon (Donald Glover). The main antagonist (Nonso Anozie) also has no real motivation against Deni and his reasoning is just plain stupid and irrational which makes his character pretty laughable. Kofi Novia (Rihanna) is the love interest of Deni and gets the most character development outside of Deni and although she is a large part of the story, she doesn't really do anything outside of being a plot device (and she barely is that). If anything I would have loved to see Deni and Kofi's relationship developed over more than 3 scenes in the movie. Deni Maroon (Donald Glover) gets all the development and is definitely a likeable protagonist, not much more to say about him. Yara Love (Letitia Wright) is Kofi's co-worker and serves no function in the story, best I can say about her is that Letitia looks like she's having a blast playing her in this movie.

Music - Well implemented and mixed well. Whether you like the songs in the movie comes down to personal taste (they're all part of Childish Gambino / Donald Glover's catalog of music, I won't spoil which ones). The instrumental in the background of some scenes however is great and fits the setting and tone of the movie perfectly; the best element of the movie in my opinion

Cinematography - Not much to say here, it's serviceable. However the film is presented with a weird aspect ratio that you may like or dislike

All other elements of the movie like the sound design and editing were all serviceable, nothing terrific but nothing too bad at all worth mentioning

Overall the movie works better in my opinion as an hour long music video, rather than a film as the plot and characters were either done poorly or were painfully average to the point where the music elements of the film were the shining components and show what this movie could have been with better film elements. With that being said it is most certainly a fun watch when you have an hour to kill. (5/ 10)

Donald Glover and Rihanna are both incredibly talented individuals. Whether in the studio, on stage or in front of the camera, these two young music legends usually receive critical acclaim when it's deserved. In 'Guava Island,' however, the two team up but the end result is underwhelming at best.

To be fair, at 56 minutes, 'Guava' is never billed as a full-length feature film in the vein that other recent music-themed movies were (like 'A Star is Born' or 'Bohemian Rhapsody'). Still, the disjointed story, awkward camerawork and throwaway music numbers kinda say all there is to say about the effort (although the "This is America" bit is pretty cool). And Rihanna's talents are basically wasted.

Many will sing the praises of 'Guava Island' just because who's involved. But it's really more like a smushed guava fruit that's been sitting out in the island sunshine for a bit too long.

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)