Marcia Clark Is Redeemed

She was mocked for her clothes and for her hair. Tabloids published nude photos of her and covered her custody fight. The defense called her hysterical. The judge condescended to her. She lost. And then she became a punchline. Twenty years later, thanks in part to The People v. O.J. Simpson, Marcia Clark is finally being seen in full.

A Conversation With New York Times Film Critic A.O. Scott

“There are critics who see their job as to be on the side of the artist, or in a state of imaginative sympathy or alliance with the artist. I think it's important for a critic to be populist in the sense that we’re on the side of the public. I think one of the reasons is, frankly, capitalism. Whether you’re talking about restaurants or you’re talking about movies, you’re talking about large-scale commercial enterprises that are trying to sell themselves and market themselves and publicize themselves. A critic is, in a way, offering consumer advice.”

My Accidental Career as a Russian Screenwriter

“In this scene, set at a government dacha, they are joined by their American counterparts at the State Department for a daylong picnic that grows increasingly informal, involving drinks, flirtation, a guitar jam and (spoiler) contact between two spies. At times in my new job, I feel like a spy myself, and one with a shaky cover. I don’t have a good answer for how I got here.”