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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Once it trades rote ballerina-training cliches for ecstatically shot sequences of hip-hop choreography, this French film, like its main character, comes alive.
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Working in at least a little lower key than usual, Al Pacino plays an aging singer opposite a charming and practical woman played by Annette Bening.
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Patricia Clarkson stars in a disappointing tale of a grieving woman who happens to find a gorgeous young guy with a bullet hole in him in the middle of her elegant cabin floor.
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As the new film follows the story of arduous work behind a ballet premiere, it avoids divas and tempers and focuses on the collaborative work that produces art.
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The coming-of-age drama about a black teenager in a poor Paris suburb takes some unexpected turns, but struggles to define why they progress as they do.
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Xavier Dolan's tale of a troubled relationship between mother and son was Canada's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Film, and it pulses with energy despite its close calls with single-mother cliches.
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Mia Wasikowska takes a long and lonely trek across the Australian desert in a film that leaves her character a bit unformed, but features a strong central performance and a surprising friendship.
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A biographical portrait of the man who urged Sweden to heed the dangers posed by Hitler wisely resists the urge to divide us into gods and monsters.
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In the historical drama Burning Bush, oppression becomes the engine driving revolt — including a student's shocking decision to set himself on fire.
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The film adaptation of John Green's fine young adult novel The Fault in Our Stars unfortunately fails to bring to life what made the book so compelling.