The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Caroline (Dennings) moves from the city to some rural hick town where
there’s nothing to do except get stoned and have sex. Everybody at school hates
her so in order to add some excitement to her life; she seduces her
all-too-willing English teacher (Lucas) while dating Thurston (Thompson), one
of her perpetually stoned classmates, as a cover for their relationship.

Caroline is the usual sarcastic, jaded Dennings character. However, the
palpable boredom and culture shock that she suffers from adds an extra
dimension to the archetype. Caroline is a product of the sexual revolution.
She’s the emancipated godless heathen while the hicks she’s surrounded by are
small-minded idiots repressed by religious morality. In her opinion,
no-strings-attached sex is a-ok. The people in her new hometown? Yeah, not so
much.

She’s drawn to Barry, her English teacher. She feels a sense of
camaraderie with him seeing as he also lived in a city and recognizes
the town for the dump that it is. She wants to do something stupid and he is
more than up for it. Of course when they start to fool around, his barely
veiled inner psychopath emerges. He’s a writer with delusions of grandeur and
issues with rejection. He sees Caroline as his muse and that she exists to
inspire his terrible art.

Barry’s transformation or unveiling happens as a story within a story
structure. We get a summary of Barry’s book, acted out on screen, as narrated
by Caroline. Seeing as the book is more or less autobiographical, he stars in
it and this is probably Lucas’ best part in the whole film. He really shines as a psychopath with an overinflated ego; a highly unstable
version of the deluded crappy artist. This same scene is also when Caroline
realizes just how messed up this guy is and exactly what he thinks of her. It
serves as a glimpse into his psyche. And while the soft, golden lighting and
dreamy cinematography do give her an ethereal, angelic glow, she rallies against
being perceived in such a shallow way.

Yes, this film does rely rather heavily on clichés but it’s very well acted and the dialogue rarely gets boring. And
while it can get rather emo; it’s also alternately sweet, sarcastic and funny
with the odd sprinkling of derangement.