📽 AT THE MOVIES-

Voy,Voy,Voy (could be) taking Egypt to the Oscars: This may have been a matter of personal opinion until Monday night, when the Cinema Syndicate announced that Omar Hilal’s debut film was selected by majority vote to represent Egypt at the Oscars, competing for Best International Film. The movie (watch trailer, runtime: 1:43 min) had already been making waves all year after its announcement at the Red Sea Film Festival, but is now receiving an outpour of kudos and support since its release in theaters last week.

Hassan (Mohamed Farrag) is an impoverished security guard in 2013, hoping to live abroad post-2013. After learning that a team of visually-impaired football players is close to competing for the world championship in Europe, Hassan, being morally bankrupt, decides to pose as a blind man to cross the border and escape. He meets Captain Adel (Bayoumi Fouad), the team’s new coach, once depressed and looking for his calling, and Engy (Nelly Karim), a plucky reporter covering the team’s success, among other memorable characters that he refuses to let hinder his plans.

One of the film’s best assets is its writing. Hilal as writer/director refuses to paint any of his characters as unambiguously good or bad. Despite their ethical shortcomings, he shows the complexity of their identities and the circumstances behind their decisions. With powerhouses like Farrag and Karim at the helm, it’s no surprise that the acting was impeccable. What is surprising, however, is seeing the pigeonholed kings of comic relief, Fouad and Taha Desouky, take on roles beyond their usual schtick, and landing them. It’s refreshing to watch an Egyptian movie where the jokes were integrated within the plot instead of the other way around. If we had to nitpick, we’d say that there was one plot twist too many, and that Karim was severely underutilized in her role.

WHERE TO WATCH- You can watch Voy,Voy,Voy in VOX Cinemas at City Center Almaza and Mall of Egypt, Citystars Stars Cinemas, CFC Galaxy Cinemas, and major theaters across the country.

A Haunting in Venice ( watch trailer, runtime: 2:24 min ) is both a solid watch for fans of the Agatha Christie series and an ode to Venice. Loosely based on Christie’s Hallowe’en Party we find poor Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) pulled out of his self-imposed retirement to use his abilities of method, logic and “lists, always lists” to identify the culprit behind a murder. Unlike other installments of the Poirot tales where the detective always solves the crime alone, this time, it seems that he actually has some help — and it’s not who you think it is.

It begins with a supposedly haunted palazzo, a murdered young woman, and a seance. Intrigued by a medium by the name of Joyce Reynolds, whose reputation is advertised to Poirot by his old friend, American author Ariande Oliver, he reluctantly attends the ceremony where his logic is put to the test. But when a body is found impaled on a statue, Poirot ceremoniously locks all exits and entrances from the building and begins his process of gathering evidence. When he starts hearing voices and seeing children that are not really there, he begins to question whether Reynolds is really onto something.

The whodunnit factor is very much alive. The cinema had viewers whispering, intrigued to figure out who was behind the murder and speculating whether Poirot, the great skeptic, will accept that there are some things that cannot be explained. However, the incidents that Poirot was unable to decode were not shared in the film, which made it seem like the director (Kenneth Branagh) had missed it.

DISCLAIMER- It does get very dark at certain points (think Game of Thrones Season 8: Episode 3 — watch preview, runtime: 0:42) so brace yourselves if your vision fails you at some point, or if your entourage falls asleep.

WHERE TO WATCH IT- You can watch the film in theaters now, you can find it in VOX Cinemas at City Center Almaza and Mall of Egypt, Citystars Stars Cinemas, CFC Galaxy Cinemas, and major theaters across the country.

📚 FROM THE BOOKSTORE-

Walter Isaacson has added Elon Musk to his roster. The famed biographer of great men of modern history (and just one woman), paints a more comprehensive picture of the world’s richest man, despite his accolades: He was named Person of the Year in 2021 and admired as a “man who aspires to save our planet… A man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.”

The 688-page biography examines Musk’s transformation from great innovator to Twitter troll: A middle-aged man whose own lawyer repeatedly refers to as a “kid,” perhaps to justify what The Wall Street Journal describes as frequent tantrums. But the biography is not a condemnation of his behavior, but an analysis of it. A young Musk was allegedly bullied relentlessly by classmates, and notably tormented by his abusive father, Eroll Musk. Isaacson recounts these experiences, along with being raised in a war-torn country, in an effort to explain the b’naire’s volatility and seemingly inexhaustible ego.

After shadowing him for two years — sitting in on meetings, having access to emails and texts, and conducting myriad interviews and late-night conversations — Isaacson surmises that Musk is a “mercurial man-child” who lacks empathy: Though he suspects that these traits were hard-wired into him. In one instance, the author recounts how close to Christmas eve Musk physically moved more than 2.5 k servers against the advice of his infrastructure experts — whom he threatened with dismissal — resulting in Twitter destabilizing for two months.

WHERE TO FIND IT- While the book is not available in Egypt yet, you can order the hardcover from Amazon for USD 22, or download the Kindle version for USD 16.99.

🍴 HOT AND FRESH OUT OF THE KITCHEN-

Noi Metropoli, while initially seeming to be promising, leaves much to be desired: The restaurant, located next to Andrea in New Giza, had a belated opening after initially planning to open its doors in 2021 to offer Mediterranean cuisine to its patrons as they gazed over a romantic horizon of 6th October. However, the view was all that the restaurant really had to offer, aside from one really good homemade dish.

The eggplant gnocchi earned the clean-plate prize: The smoky eggplant played off a subtle fresh tomato sauce that coated the pillowy gnocchi. However, the other dishes sadly were off the mark: The spicy pepperoni pizza dough was not proofed and the imposed topping was heavy on the mayonnaise (we can hear our Italian friends’ remarks). The linguine with pesto burrata needed more burrata; however, the sun-dried tomatoes added some balance to the dish.

If it isn’t on the menu, don’t try to ask for it. The restaurant has yet to receive its alcohol license, and requests for fresh juice and a side of sauteed vegetables were sadly not accommodated.

💵 Per person: EGP 1.5 k

🪑 Outdoor seating: Yes

🍺 Alcohol: No

🚬Smoking/Shisha: Yes

🦽 Accessibility friendly: No

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