How many of us, in the year of our climate change 2024, have not thought about whether or not we have practical skills for a post-apocalyptic landscape? How many youths raised on YA dystopias have not become aware that they do not know how to use a bow and arrow, nor forage tubers, nor identify non-poisonous mushrooms? When the world falls apart, I will be scrabbling for huckleberries in the woods with the deer, and I know it.
It seems that Donald Glover has figured this out, now, too, based on the trailer for Bando Stone and the New World, in which Glover plays a musician (Bando Stone, natch) who seems to wake up in some semi-distant future (given the vines over his front door) where he is one of a few survivors. What they’ve survived is unclear, but there are weird neon boxes and too-big animals and even the regular-sized seem really, really mad.
Wisely, after finding the post office empty, Bando Stone hoofs it to the local mini mart for supplies. How he gets from the mini mart to the Lost-esque landscape seen later in the trailer, I have no idea. But first he meets a woman (Jessica Allain) who has several important things: a child, a large gun, and some survival skills. If we are speaking broadly, the ability to make art is also relevant to humanity’s survival, though movies and TV tend to overlook that. Perhaps this movie will be different? Perhaps not. Glover also directed the film, and his alter ego Childish Gambino provides the soundtrack. The screenplay is credited to Evi Wilder, a name that seems only to exist in relation to this film. Another alter ego?
Bando Stone and the Lost World is coming as an exclusive IMAX event sometime this year.
