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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Maleficent shifts the spotlight away from the sweet, beautiful heroine and rehabilitates the most maligned figure in the fairy tale canon. Recommended
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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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Sebastian Lelio's latest film, Gloria, is a celebration of its title character, an older single woman looking for life and love in a modernized Chile more focused on individual rights than on familial obligations. (Recommended)
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Portraying author P.L. Travers and Walt Disney, Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks re-create the backstage drama that got Mary Poppins from the page to the screen in Saving Mr. Banks . Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti and Jason Schwartzman also star.
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In 2008, documentarian Alex Gibney ( Taxi to the Dark Side) started a film about Lance Armstrong's comeback. When the bike racer at last confessed to doping, The Armstrong Lie ended up as a chronicle of his fall from grace.
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The film, from Margin Calldirector J.C. Chandor, features a forceful performance from Robert Redford as a man stranded alone in the Indian Ocean, battling against nature and struggling to survive. (Recommended)
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The black-and-white indie thriller is about a trip to one of earth's happiest places ... that goes thoroughly wrong. The movie, from first-time director Randy Moore, was filmed in Disney parks without permission — which isn't nearly enough of a gimmick to redeem the end result.
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In Enough Said, a divorced empty-nester mom takes a second run at romance with a seemingly perfect man. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini — who died in June — star in this baby boomer romance from writer-director Nicole Holofcener.
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Adapted by scripter Christopher Hampton from a Doris Lessing novella, the sand-and-surfy soap Adore centers on two Aussie friends (Robin Wright, Naomi Watts) who get into all kinds of trouble with each other's adolescent sons. Critic Ella Taylor says ... well, she pretty much says " Harrumph."
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Two former lovers find themselves on an accused terrorist's legal team in a surveillance-state thriller that goes a little too far to be credible — at least, that is, if it's really meant as a caution against the excesses of a security-obsessed Establishment.