Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor is a freelance film critic, book reviewer and feature writer living in Los Angeles.
Born in Israel and raised in London, Taylor taught media studies at the University of Washington in Seattle; her book Prime Time Families: Television Culture in Post-War America was published by the University of California Press.
Taylor has written for Village Voice Media, the LA Weekly, The New York Times, Elle magazine and other publications, and was a regular contributor to KPCC-Los Angeles' weekly film-review show FilmWeek.
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An aging Bard of Avon (Kenneth Branagh) returns to his hometown to reconnect to the family he barely knows in this touching film about the disconnect between life and art.
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Director Josie Rourke's epic, fiercely feminist period piece "does make a powerfully moving case for an uneasy dance between two powerful women hamstrung by male politics."
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In this haunting, lyrical Italian film, the true story of a horrific mob-related kidnapping is couched within "a love story [that unfolds] in a fairy tale more Grimm than Disney."
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Writer/director Steve McLean's "lovely piece of whimsy" about a gay sex worker in 1970s London examines "the mixed blessings of sex, art, beauty and authenticity."
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Actor Joel Edgerton adapts for the screen a 2016 memoir about a teenager undergoing "gay conversion therapy;" he also directs and stars in this "intelligent message movie."
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In her debut feature, writer/director Elizabeth Chomko brings fresh insight โ and a stellar cast โ to the "dysfunctional family" subgenre; the result is "funny and sad, but never mawkish."
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Mary Elizabeth Winstead's bracingly mercurial performance drives this film about a New York stand-up who moves to Los Angeles for her career โ and to sort out her private life.
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Emma Thompson stars as a British High Court judge who becomes embroiled in the life of a teenager brought before her, for reasons about which "it's hard to tell and harder to care."
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Director Chris Weitz seems ill-at-ease with the rhythms of action scenes, but this Hollywood-zed version of history comes to life when it features Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley verbally sparring.
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To make Penelope Fitzgerald's astringent novel more broadly palatable, adapter Isabel Coixet softens it nearly beyond recognition. Fitzgerald fans, be warned: The result is marketable but mealy.