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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Director Karyn Kusama has a history of films where women fight back. But Destroyer, despite its transformation of Nicole Kidman, fails to develop a compelling story to support that transformation.
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Beloved children's show host Fred Rogers is the subject of this compassionate — but not blindly worshipful — documentary from the filmmaker behind 20 Feet from Stardom.
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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.
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Any Day Now, set against the backdrop of the 1970s, tells the story of a gay couple's fight to adopt a neglected boy with Down syndrome. Director Travis Fine's film lacks technical polish, but critic Ella Taylor says the story's heart makes up for most of its faults.
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In the directorial debut of screenwriters Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, sensitive author Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) stumbles upon a manuscript and passes it off as his own. The success that follows is tempered by an encounter with the real author.
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A new documentary follows a modeling agent and his scout, former model Ashley Arbaugh, as they export young Russian girls to Tokyo to participate in a cutthroat, underpaid modeling industry.
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Newest in a recent string of male-directed, female-written raunch comedies, For a Good Time, Call ... follows initially mismatched roommates who bond over a phone-sex business venture. Critic Ella Taylor says it presents a curious twist on how people express love.
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The documentary Somewhere Between chronicles three years in the lives of four young American women, all adopted, all Chinese by birth. Critic Ella Taylor says the film is a warm-hearted vehicle that lets the teenagers speak for themselves.
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Mads Matthiesen's Teddy Bear, starring real-life bodybuilder Kim Kold, mixes fairytale tropes and tender non-professional performances to tell the story of Dennis, a stunted mother's boy who flees home looking for love. He ventures to Thailand, where he finds kindred souls. (Recommended)
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Phil Dorling and Ron Nyswaner's new dramedy, expanded from a Sundance short, introduces troubled characters but refuses to follow through and make them deal believably with their demons.