Ben Umstead
East Coast Editor; Los Angeles, California

Born in New England, bred around the Capital Beltway, and schooled in the heart of Hollywood, Ben joined Team Twitch in the summer of 2009 when he moved to NYC. He can once again be found wandering the streets of Los Angeles.

Bradley Cooper Gets Intense In A New Clip From THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

One thing is clear about Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance, the man does not like smiles. Case in point: Bradley Cooper confronting Eva Mendes in a tense little scene from his third feature outing, the crime-drama The Place Beyond The... More »
  

Interview: Park Chan-Wook Talks STOKER
Park Chan-wook needs no introduction to any longtime Twitch reader or fan of 21st century Korean cinema. With Stoker, his first English-language film, it is very likely that his star will shine even brighter and higher for even more of... More »
  

TV Review: COMMUNITY S4E04 Alternative History Of The German Invasion (Or, It's Nice To See Greendale Again)
One thing that has clearly been lacking thus far in this season of Community is quality time spent on the campus of Greendale Community College. In many ways the study room is just as central to this show as the... More »
  

Chris Cooper Is Norman Osborn In THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
Say what you will about Marc Webb's retooled Spider-Man effort from last summer, the movie was cast extremely well with stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone giving some genuine spark to the muddy origin redo. Now the sequel ain't no... More »
  

Boston Underground Film Fest Announces Their First Batch Of Titles
Boston area readers, make major note: the mid-week/weekend which consists of March 27th-31st is gonna be crazy. Crazy good for film viewing that is as the 15th annual Boston Underground Film Festival kicks off. Take extra special note because they've... More »
  

NYC Happenings: Japan Society's Got Girls, Guns & Ghosts
If you're a Twitch reader and a fan of Japanese films, then you have probably seen a flick or two from the legendary studio Shintoho -- yes, the studio that was formed by striking Toho workers, this was real grass... More »
  

ARGO Wins Best Picture, Men With Long Hair Also Win Big At The Oscars

I must have been a mile and a half away from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood (just a little further than the remote orchestra that played many a selection of John Williams tunes tonight) for the 85th Annual Academy Awards,... More »
  

TV Review: COMMUNITY S4E03, Conventions Of Space And Time (Or, When Fan Service Doesn't Work)
Since most of tonight's episode takes place in and around the Inspector Spacetime "InspectiCon", I guess now is as good a time as any to talk a bit about fandom, Community and my credentials for reviewing the show.Community fans may... More »
  

Megan Fox Is This Generation's April O'Neil

The Michael Bay produced, Jonathan Liebsman directed version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is still happening. Dear God, it is still happening...The proof that all our nightmares are in fact coming very, very true is that casting is now underway...... More »
  

NYC Happenings: Film Comment Selects Starts Tonight
...And it runs through the 28th. An eclectic selection from old guard masters and young upstarts the world over, with a few little seen oldies in the mix, the 2013 edition of Film Comment Selects at The Film Society of... More »
  

TV Review: COMMUNITY S4E02, Paranormal Parentage (Or, A Visit To Pierce's Mansion On Halloween Proves Hollow)
Bad Analogy time: The second episode of this season's Community is like wearing a new pair of jeans for the second time... once they've been washed. They are now not as stiff, a bit more comfortable, but you're not 100%... More »
  

Peter Dinklage Joins X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
Director Bryan Singer took to Twitter earlier this evening to announce the latest cast member for his third X-Men outing (and the franchise's sixth film). Straight from the horse's mouth: Officially like to welcome #PeterDinklage from #GameOfThrones to #XMEN #DaysofFuturePast... More »
  

TV Review: COMMUNITY S4E01, History 101 (Or, Dan Harmon Has Left The Building, And Yes There Is A Void, But All Is Not Lost)
And so it was on February 7th, after many months of delays, that the first episode of Community without creator Dan Harmon as showrunner aired. As the clock struck 8pm, fans across North America held a collected breath in the... More »
  

Short Film, Short Review: LATE LUNCH Offers Up A Charming Picnic Basket Of Dark Comedic Delights
Often in film, whether short or feature, we're presented with a moral fable, a lesson and a warning to show us just how wrong humanity can be, just how vile and terrible someone can get. The naughty mustn't go unpunished... More »
  

Slamdance 2013: All Wrapped Up
The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival has been over for 12 days now and I just don't want it to end, hence no wrap up of the festival... until now. Better late than never then. So without much fuss let's dive... More »
  

Slamdance 2013 Interview: The Filmmakers Talk The Festival Experience
In the final hours of the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival a group of filmmakers and I confiscated the Gallery screening room at Treasure Mountain Inn, made an impromptu circle and tossed a chair in the middle for my digital recorder... More »
  

Here's Your First Look At Ti West's THE SACRAMENT

Run, AJ Bowen, run!... Or well, that appears to be the indie horror mainstay in the above still, the first from the Savannah, Georgia set of Ti West's latest entitled The Sacrament.Produced by Eli Roth, we don't know a whole... More »
  

NYC Happenings: Film Comment Selects Announces Their 2013 Slate
Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Michel Gondry and Antonio Campos, Oh My!From February 18 - 28 The Film Society of Lincoln Center will be presenting their 13th edition of Film Comment Selects, a veritable what's what of films from the last year on... More »
  

Slamdance 2013 Exclusive Video: Feast On The Anarchy That Is Slamdance!
The awards have been given, the screening rooms and offices are being disassembled as we speak, but Slamdance 2013 lives on and today we have a little video treat from the Slamdance TV gang of Ben Hethcoat and Michal Felker.... More »
  

Slamdance 2013 News: And The Awards Go To...
And so it was on January 24th 2013, just after 10pm Utah time, amongst a few hundred warm bodies in the main screening room at the Treasure Mountain Inn that The 19th Slamdance Film Festival came to close with a... More »
  
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Interview: V/H/S/2 Cinematographer Abdul Dermawan Habir Talks SAFE HAVEN
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Twitchvision: Talking MAN OF STEEL and THIS IS THE END
Featured Articles

Fifteen Unfilmable Novels And The Directors Who Should Try Anyway

Ah, the 'unfilmable' novel. Go back ten or fifteen years and it seems everyone had some sort of list of great novels that could never be brought to the screen. The limitations at the time were largely technical and in recent years those lists have dwindled with titles such as... More »

Jason Gorber's Cineruminations: On MAN OF STEEL, SuperJesus, and THIS IS THE END's Jewpocalypse

Back in 1933, while Hitler was ascending into power in Germany and diasporic Jews throughout the world looked on with concern, two high school students created one of the most indelible mythical heroes of the last century. Borrowing from the Nietzschean concept of the Übermensch, Joe Shuster and Jerry... More »

Twitchvision: Talking MAN OF STEEL and THIS IS THE END

This is the big week of Superman's return, with Zack Snyder's take on the caped saviour hitting our screens. While my opinion's kind of mixed on the film, there's still plenty to admire about it. I also discuss the overt Jesus imagery throughout, as expanded in a full cineruminations column... More »

70s Rewind: Bridges, Barbra, Bogdanovich, Brynner

Amazon's Prime Instant streaming service is not as well-established as Netflix and has far more modest offerings in off-beat and strange cinema. Still, since I temporarily dropped Netflix, I've been diving deeper into Amazon's catalog, and discovered a good number of films from my favorite movie decade. Here's a selection... More »

LA Film Fest 2013: Twitch Picks 12 Must-See Films

It's LA Film Fest time with LA's downtown fest kicking off tonight with Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited. Twitch will be on hand with a small crew to bring you news and reviews from around the fest. You can follow us on twitter at @TwitchFilm | @BenUmstead | @AlexKoehne... More »
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