Amy Nicholson is an American film criticism 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 and repeatedly watching
Home Alone (1990) with her friends, as well as watching films starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
After graduating from Incarnate Word High School, she attended the University of Oklahoma (OU) and initially enrolled to study psychology.
During her second semester, Nicholson took classes in film and anthropology; she reflected: "I was always really interested in the way people think about culture."
Nicholson then double majored with a B.A. in Film Studies and Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma, and graduated in 2002.
Career
Film critic
After her graduation, 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 the film editor at
Inland Empire Weekly from 2006 to 2010.
In July 2013, Nicholson was hired as a full-time film critic for LA Weekly, a position she considered her dream job. Her reviews were featured in both the print and online editions, as well as eleven publications owned by Voice Media Group.
In January 2016, Nicholson left LA Weekly and became the chief film critic for MTV News.
Nicholson was a member of the international jury of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival that took place in February 2025.
Author
In 2014, Nicholson published her first book,
Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor. When asked why she selected 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."
She was given two and a half months to write the book, in which she watched ten of Cruise's films and analyzed them to determine his growth as an actor.
Her second book
Extra Girls is scheduled to be released by Simon & Schuster.
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 series 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.
The podcast debuted at number 1 on
iTunes Film & TV podcast rankings and number 4 on the iTunes overall top chart.
Publications
External links
