Ryland Aldrich

Festivals Editor; Los Angeles, California

Ryland is a filmmaker and freelance writer based in sunny Los Angeles. He has been contributing to Twitch since 2009 and covering the festival beat as Festivals Editor since 2011. He writes on topics from sports to politics to tech at enderzero.net and spends the rest of his time on twitter at @RylandAldrich.

LA Film Fest 2013 Review: EUROPA REPORT Is Mushy But Enjoyable Sci-Fi

Ecuadorian filmmaker Sebastián Cordero has a handful of titles on his directing resume, the best known probably 2004's John Leguizamo-starring non-comic journalist drama Cronicas. All of his films have been in Spanish and none venturing into what we would... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Review: STORM SURFERS 3D Hits A New High Water Mark

Plenty of arguments have been made about the merits of our current 3D cinematic boom. While much of the talk focuses on ticket prices and the gimmick factor, one common discourse is that the experience of watching a film in... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

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... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

LA Film Fest 2013: Twitch Previews Downtown's Big Fest

It's LA Film Fest time once again with downtown's big fest kicking off tomorrow. Centered around LA Live's Regal Cinemas, this year's fest will again be an oasis of indie cinema in the epicenter of megaplex mayhem. We'll be... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

LA Film Fest Exclusive: First Trailer & Poster for Indie Charmer FOREV

The LA Film Fest is coming to town -- kicking off this Thursday in Downtown LA. To get you all psyched up, we've got an exclusive trailer and poster debut for you here at Twitch for one of the narrative... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Review: THE EAST Entertains But Lacks An Indie Spark

Zal Batmanglij has worked up quite a fan base since his debut feature Sound of My Voice premiered at Sundance in 2011. Though it was initially overshadowed by the big sale buzz of that year's other Brit Marling film, Another... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013: Twitch Says Au Revoir with All Our Reviews and Top Picks

It's always a melancholy feeling saying farewell to another year of the Cannes Film Festival wraps up for another year. It was a particularly excellent year for films on the Croisette and you'll be reading plenty more about them... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 Review: INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS - Colorful Characters, Folk Music, And Saving Cats

Winners of numerous screenwriting awards including two Oscars, it's difficult to think of many filmmakers more adept at their craft than Joel and Ethan Coen. So it comes as a bit of a surprise when, in the first act... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 Review: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR Does Coming-Of-Age With Phenomenal NSFW Aplomb

There is a stereotype that used to exist in America that European (and especially French) films were all full of gratuitous sex. Back before the internet, VHS tapes, and days of easy access pornography, young boys would sneak into... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is This Year's Palme d'Or Winner; INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Snags Grand Prix; Plus All Winners Listed

It's a remarkable year at Cannes when one film doesn't run away as the favorite for top prize of the Palme d'Or. That's exactly what happened this year with four or five films all with good odds going into... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 Review: JODOROWSKY'S DUNE Delightfully Journeys Into The Brilliance That Might Have Been

What's the most important film never made? Is it Kubrick's Napoleon? How about Gilliam's take on Don Quijote? In his excellent sophomore feature documentary of the same name, director Frank Pavich would have you believe the answer is Jodorowsky's... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 Review: NEBRASKA is a Long Drive with a Charming Destination

Alexander Payne is on some kind of hot streak with all four of his major features receiving Oscar nominations and his last two (Sideways and The Descendants) both earning Best Picture noms and taking home statues for Best Adapted... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Review: BEFORE MIDNIGHT, Older, Wiser, Still Talking

Not every movie needs its audience to know nothing about the plot or story going in. We live in a world of trailers and Twitter and even spoilers from Lego toys. But the plain fact is, you will enjoy the... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 Review: ONLY GOD FORGIVES and the Art of Violence

Nicolas Winding Refn may have burst onto the Hollywood scene with his slow burn but relatively straightforward actioner Drive, but before that film, Refn made a name for himself with considerably more abstract narratives such as Valhalla Rising. Refn... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 First Impression: ONLY GOD FORGIVES Is A Hyper-Violent Feast For The Senses

Few films are as anticipated around Twitch as Nicolas Winding Refn's follow-up to Drive and re-teaming with Ryan Gosling, Only God Forgives. The film has had its premier at Cannes and boy is it going to be divisive. More... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 Review: BEHIND THE CANDELABRA Plays A Familiar Tune

It's become somewhat common for HBO to premiere their bigger movies at notable festivals and Cannes makes perfect sense for Steven Soderbergh's so-called final film, Behind the Candelabra. It also makes sense that the Matt Damon and Michael Douglas... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 Review: BLOOD TIES Knots Up 1970s New York

To call Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties a love letter to the 1970s is a bit of an understatement. The Clive Owen, Billy Crudup brothers-on-opposite-sides-of-the-law drama absolutely oozes with 1970s nostalgia from its impeccable costume and production design to its almost... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013 First Impression: INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Makes the Bad Times Fun

The Coen Brothers return with the 1960s-set Inside Llewyn Davis, a delightful tragicomedy about a musician just trying to get a break. Oscar Isaac plays the titular Llewyn and this is very much his show from beginning to end.... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013: Weinsteins Trot Out Lineup, Slightly Less Exciting Than Last Year

Harvey Weinstein said it himself at this year's Weinstein Company Cannes showcase, "2012 was a year as good as any year we had at Miramax." The three films highlighted at last year's event (Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, and... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

Cannes 2013: Quinzaine Organizers Denounce Iranian Filmmaker

A bit of controversy over at the Directors' Fortnight sidebar (or Quinzaine des réalisateurs) yesterday when Iranian director Alireza Khatami made some pretty scathing remarks for the stage about the Taiwanese film Taipei Factory. As filmbiz.asia reports: Khatami said that... More »

By Ryland Aldrich

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Leading Voices in Global Cinema

Todd Brown, Founder & Editor Toronto
Peter Martin, Managing Editor Dallas
Ryland Aldrich, Festivals Editor Los Angeles
James Marsh, Asian Editor Hong Kong
Brian Clark, European Editor Paris

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