as if

Ms. Roberts, clad in white in nearly every scene as if to suggest neutrality, or perhaps that she has blanked out her own history, is not in her element as a professor—the academic dialogue is laboriously intellectual and woefully inauthentic—but does have one stellar scene, nearly at the end.

“Heart the Lover,” like “Writers & Lovers,” feels at times as if it has been poured directly from the writer’s soul onto the page.

TV cameras focus on coaches and players who look as if they made a mistake siphoning gasoline.

As if social media hasn’t done enough to degrade behavior and fuel cultural dysfunction.

Until recently, it looked as if Sasaki’s first season with the Dodgers was going to end with a whimper.