Mo Amer’s ‘Mo’ Is a Love Letter to His Palestinian Heritage and Hometown

Comedian Mo Amer poses for a portrait, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, in Los Angeles to promote his Netflix series "Mo." (AP)
Comedian Mo Amer poses for a portrait, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, in Los Angeles to promote his Netflix series "Mo." (AP)
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Mo Amer’s ‘Mo’ Is a Love Letter to His Palestinian Heritage and Hometown

Comedian Mo Amer poses for a portrait, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, in Los Angeles to promote his Netflix series "Mo." (AP)
Comedian Mo Amer poses for a portrait, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, in Los Angeles to promote his Netflix series "Mo." (AP)

Up-and-coming comedian Mo Amer was opening for Dave Chappelle in 2014 when the more established comedian made a suggestion: Amer should make a short film to introduce his act.

“I started thinking about the short film. I put it together, I was obsessed. And then I wrote it out and then all my friends were like, ‘This is genius, bro. You need to save this for a TV series.’ And I was like, ‘Word? TV series?’ Since then, I’ve just been kind of accumulating all these stories from my mother, my family… my history, my refugee experience in America, the fish-out-of-water element.”

Amer’s true family history serves as the foundation of his new Netflix dramedy, “Mo.” He describes the series as a love letter to his Palestinian heritage and his hometown.

“Although it’s a refugee story, an immigrant Palestinian story, it’s also a love letter to Houston. It’s also like an everyman struggle (story) — people who are working paycheck to paycheck, they’re trying to take care of family, people that are dealing with addiction,” said the 41-year-old. “It has all these layers to it.”

The debut season, comprised of eight half-hour episodes, was created by Amer and Emmy-nominated actor Ramy Youssef, Amer’s good friend and former roommate. “Mo," along with shows like Youssef’s critically acclaimed “Ramy,” is part of a growing — but still extremely underrepresented — movement in Hollywood bringing Muslim and Middle Eastern stories to the masses.

The series follows Mo Najjar (played by Amer) as his family, including his mother (Farah Bsieso) and brother (Omar Elba) navigate through life in the Houston area in ways many immigrants in America are forced to: seeking employment without citizenship and therefore working odd, under-the-table jobs, as well as maneuvering an often unforgiving health care system and trying assimilate into society.

Similar to the storyline, Amer’s own parents were originally from Palestine before fleeing to Kuwait. Amer was born there, but the Gulf War forced them to leave and eventually settle in Texas. Learning about his family history and their struggles through conversations with his mother, Amer, helped create a blueprint.

In the series, flashbacks give context, and some are pivotal to both the show and his real life; episode seven opens with his mother cleverly hiding money as the family prepares to escape Kuwait.

“My mom started just crying when she saw it. She was just like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe you recreated this like that.’ She’s like, ‘How did you even remember the house, the colors, the things on the walls?’” Amer recalled proudly. “I can’t forget that.”

Houston is known for many things: space exploration, its world-renowned medical center and its slowed down hip-hop music known as screwed music; what America’s fourth largest city is not known for is a film and TV industry. However, Amer was adamant about shooting there, aiming to raise the show's authenticity factor. Despite a couple of major films shot in Houston in the early '90s it hasn’t been a destination for moviemakers.

Local talent throughout Texas was hired for production, and there are a few notable guest appearances, including rising Houston-based rapper Tobe Nwigwe who plays Najjar’s best friend, and cameos from well-known Texas-flag bearers Paul Wall and Bun B of the legendary southern duo, UGK.

“It just really was shocking to me there’s never been a narrative sitcom, native series filmed out of Houston, which is absurd to me knowing what Houston has to offer,” he explained. “Everything is deliberate from the music choice… to the attire, to the accents, to the feel, the picture, the cinematography. There’s nothing that we didn’t think really about.”

“Mo” has become one of 2022’s buzzworthy and binge-worthy shows, attracting viewers from all backgrounds and a deep respect from many Middle Eastern Americans. But he emphasizes the show has been a long time in the making.

“Netflix drops everything all at the same day and it’s just like, ‘BOOM! Here it is.' But those episodes are many, many years of really thinking this through,” he said. “You hope it resonates in that way, and it’s such a relief when it does. It’s like, ‘They get it. I didn’t screw this up.’”



Apple's 'F1: The Movie' Roars to Top of US, Canada Box Office

Cast member Brad Pitt attends the "F1: The Movie" European premiere in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Brad Pitt attends the "F1: The Movie" European premiere in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. (Reuters)
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Apple's 'F1: The Movie' Roars to Top of US, Canada Box Office

Cast member Brad Pitt attends the "F1: The Movie" European premiere in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Brad Pitt attends the "F1: The Movie" European premiere in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. (Reuters)

Apple's high-octane racing film "F1: The Movie" roared to the top of the US and Canadian box office this weekend, fueled by star-power and a finely-tuned marketing campaign, according to Comscore.

The movie, which stars Brad Pitt as a Formula 1 racer who returns to the track after an accident nearly ends his career, brought in $55.6 million in ticket sales in the two countries. That tally edged past the $45 million to $55 million pre-weekend domestic forecast from the Boxoffice Company.

Worldwide receipts topped $88 million, propelled by the sport's strong fan base in Europe and Latin America.

Racing films typically sputter in theaters, according to Daniel Loria, senior vice president of the Boxoffice Company, a theatrical ecommerce and data services firm. The most successful of the genre, the widely acclaimed "Ford v Ferrari," opened to a modest $31 million in November 2019.

"We haven't had that many movies about car racing that have broken through," Loria said. One notable outlier is the "Fast & Furious" action series that expanded beyond its street racing roots to include heists, espionage and an improbable moon shot.

"F1" had several factors weighing in its favor, helping to broaden its appeal beyond racing enthusiasts. The film's director, Joseph Kosinski, brought the same high-intensity cinematic treatment of Formula 1 racing that he lent to the fighter jet sequences in his 2022 movie, "Top Gun: Maverick." Moviegoers who were polled by CinemaScore gave F1 an A rating, signaling their approval.

Netflix's "Formula 1: Drive to Survive" series helped fuel the popularity of Formula 1 racing, particularly in the US Apple also put marketing muscle behind its movie, an Apple Original Films production that Variety reported cost in excess of $200 million to make.

The tech giant touted "F1" during CEO Tim Cook's keynote address at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference and offered a movie discount to iPhone users. Apple Music also amplified the film's soundtrack.

Warner Bros, which marketed and distributed the movie, developed a bespoke campaign that emphasized the participation of Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton in Europe and Latin America, while focusing on Pitt in the US.

"It's very much like a perfectly coordinated pit crew in a race," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Comscore, an information and analytics company. "They shot this thing off the starting line with great success."

"F1" represents the biggest opening weekend for Apple, whose previous cinematic efforts, such as director Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon," garnered critical acclaim but achieved modest results at the box office.

"The film's outstanding debut reflects both the excitement of Formula 1 and the deeply emotional and entertaining story crafted by the entire cast and creative team," Zack Van Amburg, Apple's head of worldwide video, said in a statement.