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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A Southern town, a heapin' helpin' of heartbreak, a shot at redemption and an adorable tyke: Writer-director Bethany Ashton Wolf's romantic drama never complicates or deepens its rote story. -
In first-time writer-director Maysaloun Hamoud's film, two young, secular Arab women living in Tel Aviv get a devoutly Muslim roommate and struggle "to live between the cracks of several cultures." -
The sudden de-Spaceying of a lead role is the least interesting thing about Ridley Scott's propulsive thriller that features a standout performance by Michelle Williams. -
Filmmaker Errol Morris employs fictional techniques — and famous actors — in this 241-minute meditation on the demise of a CIA operative in 1953 that left a son obsessed with finding answers. -
Two films now in theaters — The Tribes of Palos Verdes and Lady Bird — feature contentious mother-daughter relationships that inspired critic Ella Taylor to reflect on her own. -
A small Alaskan community is left reeling by an act of violence. Jamie M. Dagg's thriller tenderly explores its aftermath without the glib, jokey cynicism that so often marks the noir genre. -
Critic Ella Taylor says Kenneth Branagh's wildly unnecessary retread of the Agatha Christie tale is "fatally tepid." -
In this Richard Linklater dramedy, three Vietnam War veterans "embark on an endlessly digressive road trip at once uproarious and rife with detours of the soul."
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Two male farmhands in Yorkshire find each other in this "full-throttle, grand love story and ... coming-of-age parable" from first-time writer-director Francis Lee. -
Using aerial photography and intimate, one-on-one interviews to document the plight of migrants in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, artist Ai Weiwei's documentary is grim but vital.
