Dead on Arrival

Directed and written by Stephen C. Sepher  USA  2017  (97 minutes)

This is a brilliantly atmospheric, engaging and stylish contemporary adult  thriller with a cultish pedigree, as it is inspired by  a famous film noir from 195O, also called D.O.A, which due  to a copywright confusion slipped into the public domain and has already been variously remade, Down Under, as Color me Dead (1969) and as D.O.A (1988), starring Dennis Quaid as the moribund hero, and even more recently as an award-winning stage musical. This latest version is most cleverly scripted by the up-and-coming director  Stephen C.Sepher (who also wrote, co-starred and was a producer of Heist) and who also contributes a commendable on-screen role as a crime supremo with heart and humour. The original premise of the main character collapsing at the start of the film ,evidently due to some mysterious but implacable poison, with the main body of the story an extended flashback told to police detectives, showing  how  he searched for his murderer, gradually realising his unwitting part in a complex criminal plot, has been ingeniously updated, and not without some fiendishly ironic nods to the original. Instead of Edmond O’Brien’s hapless Frank Bigelow the anti-hero searching for a non-existent antidote is here a younger sales rep for pharmaceuticals, Sam Collins(strikingly played by Billy Flynn, something of a new-comer to cinema but with extensive TV experience and surely a star in the making) who is invited to the New Year’s Eve party of a distinguished but peroxided doctor(Billy Slaughter, suitably slimy)  in his Louisiana mansion,  ostensibly for a profitable deal.

A heady alternative backdrop to the  San Francisco convention week  of the  original this glittery setting presents many of the top-notch ensemble cast, convincingly fleshing out seedy mobsters, pervy local big-wigs, corrupt cops  and casual hookers as the night descends into debauchery and Sam is caught in the poisonous web without realising the role he has to play. Subsequently he visits a colourful strip joint, and the residence of a voodoo priestess who attempts to exorcise the toxin. All the locations, inside and exteriors are handsomely caught in the excellent wide-screen cinematography by John Garrett.

The film is fast-paced and another murder catapults the plot along as Sam realises many of the characters are not who or even what they appear to be. There are a couple of splendid mid-price thugs whose repartee rivals that of the gangsters in Kiss me Kate (plaudits for Lillo Brancato as the follicly-challenged Zanca), and just when you think the crooked cop is going  to  best the one local decent policeman ,no less a thespian than D.B. Sweeney, arrives as the detective in charge…..but I must not reveal any more spoilers, though  even if you have seen the original film  you will not be able to guess how this will end.

Happily,  it is not just  the twists and turns of the plot, or the lively  direction, but it is the spot-on casting of all the ensemble that makes this such an entertaining departure. More or less familiar faces perfectly  bring to life both male and female roles – and even one that is apparently both- and there  is an occasional frisson not so much of Tarantinoesque violence but of sensual yet tasteful eroticism and a dash of kinkiness such as seasoned thrillers back in the 1960s. If  you do recall the first D.O.A., you can pat yourself on the back for spotting a cameo from Edmond O’Brien’s daughter, Maria.

This should prove to be a hit with festival groupies, and enthusiasts of off-beat crime-thrillers, and should help propel writer-director and many of the players on to studio work. This is a very commendable independent production,  with sufficient production values and splendid locations that justify viewings on any festival or cinema screen

PHILLIP  BERGSON

Film Critic, UK, member of Fipresci Phillip Bergson contributes to many media including filmfestivals.com

Winner of the Student Journalist of the Year competition in the UK weekly New Statesman, as a Classics Scholar Phillip Bergson then founded the Oxford Film Festival and, on graduating, was selected by "The Sunday Times" as a 'New Critic' and in the same week began broadcasting on film for many BBC Radio programmes. A contributor to the "Times Literary Supplement", "TES", "Screen International", "Film Bulletin", "Film a Doba" inter alia, he also worked for the "European Script Fund", has scripted shorts and features (that have been produced and released) and, fluent in eight-and-a-half languages, currently programmes and advises several international film festivals. At the National Media Museum in his native Yorkshire, he created the "Eurovisions" project, to promote classic and contemporary European cinema.

As a Jury Member

·         in 57^th Berlinale 2007

·         in 7^th Bratislava International Film Festival 2005

·         in 5^th Lecce Festival of European Cinema 2004

·         in 51^st Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival 2001

·         in 54^th Locarno International Film Festival 2001

·         in 20^th Haifa International Film Festival 2004

·         in 34^th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 1999

·         in 16^th Istanbul International Film Festival 1997

·         in 9^th Festroia International Film Festival 1993

·         in 43^rd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film 2000

·         in 48^th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 1999

·         in 41^st Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2000

·         in 33^rd Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival 1995

·         in 41^st International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg 1992

·         in 37^th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 1988

·         in 39^th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 1990

·         in 39^th Montreal World Film Festival 2015

·         in 45^th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film 2002

·         in 16^th Riga International Film Forum Arsenals 2002

·         in 9^th Cottbus Festival of East European Cinema 1999