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.

Tribeca 2013 Preview: Special Screenings And Shorts
With less than 24 hours until Tribeca kicks off, we're back again with another preview of this year's fest. Yesterday I laid eyes on a few fine looking flicks in the Gala and Midnight sections, this morning Ryland told you... More »
  

Tribeca 2013 Preview: Galas And Midnighters
Dear readers, can you feel it? In the immortal words of Cyrus... Can you dig it? Keep your ear to the ground, your hand on the pulse, and tune into Twitch 'cause we're starting today, right now... yes, it's Tribeca... More »
  

Review: COMMUNITY S4E09, Intro To Felt Surrogacy (Or, Playing With Puppets Can Be Bittersweet)

It's nice that I don't have to make any lame jokes about the use of puppets in this episode as the title so cleverly got that out of the way for me. So thank you, Community writers. You do your... More »
  

Twitch Talks UPSTREAM COLOR
Shane Carruth's followup to his stunning debut Primer expands to additional theatres this week (and will be available for download and streaming May 7). Our own Eric Snider reviewed the film at Sundance, suggesting that "Upstream Color is interesting; it just... More »
  

TV Review: COMMUNITY S4E08, Herstory Of Dance (Or, Much Ado About Britta)
For those of us who have not given up on the show, we're now a few weeks in to settling in moderate comfort to the Community Moses Port & David Guarascio and their writing staff have made. What started out... More »
  

The RESOLUTION Boys Go Deep Sea Diving, Guerrilla Style

In preparation for their trip to the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam next week, The gentlemen behind Resolution, one of our favorite smart horror subversions of the past years, have taken to some most dire of straights to make sure... More »
  

Hey, NYC! Wanna See TRANCE For Free?
Well of course you do. After all, it's a new movie from one mister Danny Boyle. So here's what's up: Twitch has Ten pairs of Run-Of-Engagment passes to give away to folks who live in the NYC area. All you... More »
  

Hey, NYC! Win Passes To See EVIL DEAD!
Hey Friends in the Five Burroughs, Twitch has got 25 passes to giveaway to an advance screening of Fede Alvarez's (but Sam Raimi produced ad approved) new take on Evil Dead, this coming Tuesday April 2nd at a NYC area... More »
  

Zombies On A Plane! - New WORLD WAR Z Trailer

It's been a long, long time coming, but a movie adaptation of Max Brooks' best-selling book World War Z (unsurprisingly with little resemblance to the tome other than its title) is in fact coming. With a June 21st release date... More »
  

TV Review: COMMUNITY S4E07, Economics Of Marine Biology (Or, It's Starting To Feel Like Home Again)
No doubt I've been extra wary towards Community this season what with new showrunners David Guarascio, Moses Port and their (largely new stock of) writers taking over for the old hands that have moved on. I've sometimes been very critical... More »
  

New Trailer For TRANCE Confirms That, Hell Yes, It Is No Doubt A Danny Boyle Film!
And I'm talking the dark, brooding, then spastic, crazy upside trickster narratives that got Danny Boyle squarely on the indie map a full two decades ago. Because while Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours have their place (for good or bad)... More »
  

Jude Law Bows Out Of JANE GOT A GUN
Just a few short hours after Warrior director Gavin O'Connor came to save the day in the wake of Lynne Ramsay's departure comes more ill news from the set of the Natalie Portman starring and produced western Jane Got A... More »
  

Steve Coogan Is In DOUBT

In Michael Winterbottom's The Trip Steve Coogan stars as a slightly manically magnified version of himself. The film has a rather hilarious running gag, and then clever nightmare sequence, wherein the actor-comedian deflects an offer to star in a U.S.... More »
  

Director Lynne Ramsay Doesn't Show Up For First Day Of Filming JANE GOT A GUN
In what must be one of the most left-field stories to come out of the industry in recent memory, We Need To Talk About Kevin helmer Lynne Ramsay never showed up for the first day of production on her new... More »
  

Sympathy For Mr. Zombie: Here's The International Trailer For HALLEY
I guarantee you won't find another trailer or film that takes to the idea of the zombie with such a sympathetic and existential gaze as you will with Sebastián Hofmann's Halley. Our very own Ard Vijn had this to say... More »
  

Interview: Hosoda Mamoru Talks WOLF CHILDREN, The Magic Of Hand-Drawn Animation And Parenting
Anime director Hosoda Mamoru hardly needs an introduction around these parts. Heck, our enthusiasm for his Summer Wars is just about legendary. Still considered a bit of an young upstart in his native Japan when compared to the old-guard animators,... More »
  

TV Review: COMMUNITY S4E06, Advanced Documentary Filmmaking (Or, We Need To Talk About Kevin... I Mean Chang)
After last week's episode where Jeff confronted his estranged father, moving on from a darker side in his life, last night's episode returned to the Greendale Campus and an issue that's been sorta loosely and peripherally dangling over the entire... More »
  

Director Cristian Mungiu Takes Us BEYOND THE HILLS In This Exclusive Featurette
It's funny the films I can get so enthusiastically, heck almost manically fanboy-ish about. Much of that kind of energy is reserved for the Spider-Mans and Batmans of the world, but for me it's usually something like... well, Cristian Mungiu's... More »
  

SXSW 2013 Review: SWIM LITTLE FISH SWIM Is A Sincere Look At The Stubbornness Of Artists
The opening moment of Ruben Amar & Lola Bessis' Swim Little Fish Swim (his feature directorial debut, her directorial and feature acting debut) finds Bessis in a rather precarious position: hogtied and posing for a grizzly-bearded naked painter. This moment... More »
  

SXSW 2013 Exclusive: SWIM LITTLE FISH SWIM Trailer Makes A Delightful Splash
Director Ruben Amar is no newb to the world of film festivals, what with his slew of short films, including Checkpoint, playing the likes of Slamdance, Saraosta and Palm Springs. Teaming up with his fellow French compatriot Lola Bessis for... More »
  
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Featured Articles

FEAR & LOATHING AT CANNES, PART 3: EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL AND I'M TRIPPING BALLS

CHAPTER 6: THERE'S NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN A PURPLE BEACH SMOTHERED IN MELTING TROMMETTES DURING A CRIMSON TINGED SUNSET ON THE FRENCH RIVERIA, HOLY SHIT I'M TRIPPING MY FUCKING FACE OFF.It's night. When the fuck did it become night? I'm naked. Where the fuck did my clothes go? I'm on... More »

Destroy All Monsters: I Think We've Been This Way Before, Mr. Spock

They can remember it for you wholesale, and they do. At some point, we licensed our pop cultural nostalgia to a handful of multinational conglomerates (well, to be fair, they always owned the licenses) and now they're selling them back to us - though, I guess, not at wholesale, but... More »

Interview: Twitch Talks to HANGOVER III's Ken Jeong

Ken Jeong may often play a lunatic on both big and small screen, but in person it's quite disarming to see just how calm and considerate he comes across. While he got his big screen start in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, Jeong's real breakthrough was taking a small-on-paper role... More »

Hollywood Beat: Notes On Cutting The Cord And NBC's Genre Programs

I cut the cable cord last year, but I'm not always happy about it. I had to wait a year before seeing Season 2 of Game of Thrones, for example, and will have to wait to see Season 3 until next year. I only have to wait to see Mad... More »

Twitchvision: Talking STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS, MUD and THE ICEMAN

Another Twitchvision chat with Scott Laurie, this time me gushing about J.J.'s latest Star Trek film, which I unabashedly loved.Also talked about he fabbo Mud, and the less fabbo The Iceman, both with Michael Shannon doing his thing.Video embedded below.Update: Was asked to come in today and pick a few... More »
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