'This is America'

Interested to get others' reactions to Childish Gambino's (Don Glover/Dong Lover) newest video.

I think Donald Glover is one of the most talented people in showbiz today. I have always enjoyed his music and TV work. As for this song, it isn't something I'll be blaring on my car stereo, but I doubt that is why he wrote it.

I've watched the video a couple of times and haven't fully unpacked everything in it. There's plenty of subtle symbolism to go with the more overt stuff. But I'm an upper-middle class white boy from the south, so there is probably some stuff that is going to go right past me no matter how many times I watch it.

Also, he dances like a weirdo and I dig that.

Don't worry, mods. I'm sure this won't get political.

 

Wait, Childish Gambino is the dude from Community?

 

Right?

He's also Lando Calrissian.

 

I think I knew that.

 

Interesting video. The song almost relies too heavily upon the video, but I suspect he wrote the song with a vision for a short film, rather than creating a video based on the song (seems almost natural for a writer/actor/director/musician to think creatively in the whole).

He seems like a bit of an odd duck, but he's insanely talented. I expect he's going to be the best part of the Han Solo movie (I actually wish they would have just given Lando his own film, rather than mining familiar territory with Han, whose story has largely been told, but I digress).

 

I watched the whole video. No clue who this guy is. And I'm fine with that.

 

'This Is America': The Childish Gambino video explained - CNN

 

That explanation was underwhelming. Stuff is happening in the background and it's about guns and police violence all cribbed from Twitter. I eagerly await the Slate piece on it.

 

Really stunning piece. A terrifying work of art.

Smartest thing I saw about it this weekend:

 

Meh. Fine visually but not catchy as a song. Doesn’t lend itself to replay. But I’m sure it will win a Grammy for something.

 

I don't particularly like the song, but the video is hypnotizing, which is what great art sometimes does.

And I've watched it several times already, so I don't get the "doesn't lend itself to replay."

This was one of the most striking references I noticed.