The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, June 15-21
Fangs (1981)
Directed by Mohammed Shebl
Arab cinema tends to be seen under the restrictive lenses of social realism and be framed by the projected tropes of naturalism. Nothing better than Fangs to dispel this orientalist stereotype. A psychedelic horror musical loosely inspired by The Rocky Horror Picture Show, this pretty far-out flick cannibalizes and regurgitates anything from Dracula to Murnau, Kubrick to Sergio Leone. The result is a dazzling if somewhat confusing ride far away from any previous preconception one could possibly have held in regard of “Middle Eastern cinema.” Also of exquisite note is the kaleidoscopic soundtrack, where the James Bond theme blends in with hypnotic outbursts of Arab disco. Giovanni Vimercati (June 17, 7:30pm; June 28, 10pm at the Spectacle)