Amy Nicholson

Amy Nicholson is an American film critic for the Los Angeles Times. She is the co-host of the podcast Unspooled. She has reviewed films for several publications, including LA Weekly, The New York Times, Variety, and The Washington Post.

Early life and education Nicholson was raised in San Antonio, Texas. As a child, she developed her admiration for films after watching "ancient films on TV" with her father. Nicholson repeatedly watched Home Alone (1990) with her friends, along with films that starred Leonardo DiCaprio at the time. Her childhood favorite was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990).

After she graduated from Incarnate Word High School, Nicholson attended the University of Oklahoma (OU) and initially enrolled in psychology. During her freshman year, Nicholson enrolled in a course called "Films in Context of the Great Depression," taught by Joanna Rapf. "I hadn't realized movies were important in that way," Nicholson reflected, "that they were a timeline of history."

After she graduated, Nicholson relocated to Los Angeles and interned at LA Weekly. There, she wrote freelance theater reviews for the paper for nine years.

Career Film critic After she graduated from USC, Nicholson served as the editor-in-chief of Boxoffice Magazine. In that capacity, she launched Boxoffice Weekly, an iPad-exclusive e-magazine. Meanwhile, she also freelanced for the Los Angeles Times, Movieline, LA CityBeat, and IndieWire. Furthermore, she served as the film editor at Inland Empire Weekly from 2006 to 2010. When reflecting on her role as a film critic, she stated, "I judge a film based on what it wanted to do."

In January 2016, Nicholson left LA Weekly and became the chief film critic for MTV News. Afterwards, she reviewed films and wrote articles that were published in Variety, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. In November 2024, Nicholson was hired as the film critic for the Los Angeles Times.

Author

In 2014, Nicholson published her first book, Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor. When asked why she decided to write about Tom Cruise, she replied: "He's hiding in plain sight. Everybody knows who he is but no one really takes him as a serious actor. I really like taking someone that everybody thinks they know and making the argument that he's even more than we think."

Podcast host In 2014, Nicholson began hosting the podcast series The Canon on Earwolf, alongside Devin Faraci. In October 2016, due to a sexual assault allegation made against Faraci, Nicholson and Earwolf mutually agreed to place the podcast on an indefinite hiatus.

In April 2017, The Canon returned from its hiatus but without Faraci. That same month, she invited actor Paul Scheer to discuss the 1984 film Ghostbusters. Scheer defended the film's artistic merits, in which Nicholson thoroughly enjoyed the conversation that she invited Scheer back to discuss The Room (2003) later that year. In 2018, she and Scheer launched their joint podcast Unspooled.

Publications