Guava Island

Donald Glover's creativity remains thrillingly uninhibited. With his casually brilliant HBO comedy Atlanta, an askance and absurdly funny look at the gig economy in America, he's responsible for the most inventive show on TV at the moment. His wild and soon-to-be-retired rapper alter-ego Childish Gambino broke the internet last summer thanks to the politically charged This is America and its extraordinary video that launched a thousand memes. Behind the camera for both was Hiro Murai, who also directs Guava Island, Glover's breezy medium-length film that plays like an anti-capitalist Purple Rain.

A fairytale opening sees Rihanna's Kofi narrate over vivid animation telling how the gods created this eponymous paradise, only for a totalitarian regime to take it over and exploit its resources. When the film switches to live action, we see this dystopia is all too real, with Kofi working seven-days-a-week in the sweatshop owned by the island’s thuggish overlord, Red (Nonso Anozie). Kofi's boyfriend, Dani (Glover), a songwriting dreamer, is also under the regime's thumb – he makes a living working the docks and by singing Red’s propagandistic jingles on radio – but he’s planning on putting on a festival so the islanders can break free from their chains, for one day at least. “We live in paradise, but no one has the time to enjoy it,” Dani laments.

Adding juice to this thin rabble-rousing plot are some Childish Gambino songs, including a remix of This is America, complete with funky new choreography, and a sweetly romantic version of Summertime Magic. The film is so breezy that resistance against its musical form will prove futile, though Glover doesn't leave much room for anyone else to shine in this 55-minute feature; to not get Rihanna involved in one of the musical numbers feels like a grievous waste of her star charisma. Glover (or his alter-ego) can be forgiven for hogging the spotlight given he has talent to burn and plenty to say. It feels like a foolhardy attitude, though, when you're making a film celebrating community and solidarity.

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Streaming on Amazon Prime