Review

Detroit Unleaded

Rating: Three stars (out of five)

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With Arabs so often villified in Hollywood movies, it’s refreshing to see such stereotypes squashed in Arab-American Rola Nashef’s glossy debut feature, a romantic comedy-drama set in a tough Dearborn, Michigan, neighbourhood. Nashef deftly balances humour and drama and slips some sly metaphors into what is essentially an amiable, featherweight slice-of-life diversion. It follows Sami (Lamar Babi), a Lebanese-American man who, after his father’s sudden death, inherits the family’s Detroit gas station, which he operates with his fast-talking cousin Mike (comic highlight Mike Batayeh). Complications mount when Naj (Nada Shouhayib), a beautiful and sophisticated young Arab woman, enters the picture and romance blossoms across the bulletproof glass, a powerful, if less-than-subtle, visual motif. The appealing cast, Nashef’s breezy direction and her playful portrayal of Detroit’s communities where blacks and Arabs co-exist make up for some narrative weaknesses, especially when it becomes a contrived Middle East variation on Romeo and Juliet and runs out of gas during its anti-climactic finale.

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