A.O. Scott
- Full Name
- Anthony O. Scott
- Date of Birth
- 07/10/1966 (43 years old)
- Place of Birth
- Northampton, MA
- Undergrad
- Harvard University
- Neighborhood
- Park Slope/Prospect Heights
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Who
The co-chief film critic for the Times, Tony Scott is known for his wide-ranging taste and spot-on sarcastic reviews.
Backstory
The son of noted gender historian Joan Wallach Scott and American history professor Donald Scott, Scott bounced from college town to college town as a kid (Madison, Chapel Hill, Providence) before moving to Cambridge to earn his B.A. at Harvard. He later enrolled in a PhD program in American literature at Johns Hopkins, but dropped out and started writing book reviews for The Nation. Editorial posts at Lingua Franca and The New York Review of Books followed, and Scott also contributed freelance film reviews to the Village Voice, Newsday, and Slate on the side. In 2000, he auditioned for the Times job with reviews of The Limey and Flawless, and despite his relative no-name status in film circles, he was hired, filling the hole left by Janet Maslin when she moved from films to books. In 2004, Scott was elevated to chief film critic amid controversy (he was promoted ahead of Elvis Mitchell, who subsequently quit). Later that year, he became co-chief critic when the paper hired Manohla Dargis away from the Los Angeles Times. Scott is based in New York; Dargis is based in LA.
Of note
Scott is one of the more influential film critics on the scene, largely by dint of his Times association. Of course, big-budget Hollywood movies tend to be review-proof, but a positive or negative review from him can have a major impact on the box-office take of smaller films. By and large, the critic has a solid rep among flim buffs: He's generally considered shrewd and reliable, and his criticisms are thought to be fair rather than arbitrary. If he's consistently criticized for anything, it's for not being quite as bold as he could be. In addition to his two or three weekly movie reviews, he contributes regularly to the Sunday Book Review, and periodically fills in for Ebert on Ebert & Roeper.
Personal
Scott lives near Prospect Park with his wife, Justine Henning, a writer who has also freelanced for the Times. They have two children, who make frequent cameos in his reviews of kids' movies.
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