This is a different version of the AmericanEast review that appeared on altmuslimah: it’s shorter, more informal, and has more focus on race.

The movie centers on Mustafa, an Egyptian immigrant who owns a café in a heavily Middle Eastern part of Los Angeles. His life, and the lives of several close to him, is one problem or tragedy after another: at one point during the movie, I asked myself whether anything good was ever going to happen to anyone.