Dead on Arrival, Review by Siraj Syed: Sex, corruption and corpses A pharmaceutical sales representative is driving when he has a seizure and barely manages to stop his car and crawl out. Picked-up by a Sheriff on patrol and taken to a hospital, he is told that he has been poisoned and will die in the next 24 hours. Time to realise that you are just two minutes into the film, when the stage is already set for a noir thriller that is inspired by the 1950 classic but speaks the cinematic langua...

Jessabelle, Review: Voodoo in the Bayou Jessabelle, co-incidentally similar in its title and name of its central character to another recent horror film, Annabelle, follows the time-tested setting of a country house surrounded by a lake (bayou, in this case) and woods, where a solitary woman faces demons that have a bone to pick with her, and with her kith and kin. It has a great-looking heroine with a starry presence, but a plot that is almost absent for 3/4ths of the film, convoluted when i...

The documentary Samba & Jazz is a vibey affair. Stressing harmonies between Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans, Jefferson Mello's tale of two rhythms is also a tale of two cities. It's their shared pulse that makes American jazz and Brazilian samba close "brothers of blackness," despite differences in instruments, culture and geography. And both family representatives trace their roots to Africa. Beginning in Rio -- which is also where the film played for Festival do Rio aud...