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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The good news is that there are multiple new films following the arrival of love for mature adults. The bad news is that they're not very satisfying. -
The Immigrant is an echo of midcentury melodramas that have fallen out of fashion, but stars Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix make indelible impressions. -
While the Nazi occupation of Hungary is a story rich with possibility for storytelling, the ham-handed melodrama Walking With The Enemy is considerably less than it deserves. -
In 2007, filmmaker John Maloof bought thousands of undeveloped negatives at an auction. Now, he and Charlie Siskel present Finding Vivian Maier, a film about the reclusive woman behind the photos. -
InIt Felt Like Love, 14-year-old Lila goes looking for love and sex over the course of a hot Brooklyn summer. Critic Ella Taylor says the film is painfully observant. (Recommended) -
Critic Ella Taylor says Maladies —a preening art film about a mentally ill ex-actor—is a prime specimen of the blossoming sub-genre VBMWJFA, or Very Boring Movie With James Franco Attached. -
In a role written specifically for her, screen icon Catherine Deneuve is Bettie, a woman in crisis who abruptly leaves her provincial French restaurant for a road trip around the country. -
The Berlin wall has fallen, and a middle-aged Norwegian woman finds her idyllic life coming unmoored as secrets rooted in World War II come to light. -
A frustrated would-be poet (Emma Roberts) takes the first steps beyond her suburban comfort zone, exploring L.A.'s artsy fringe in the company of a drag queen and a washed-up practitioner of her own chosen form. -
Documentary filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, known for his long and thorough examinations of the Holocaust and its memory, presents a series of 1975 conversations between himself and exiled Jewish elder Benjamin Murmelstein. (Recommended).
