Amy Nicholson

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For 775 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Amy Nicholson's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Frankenstein
Lowest review score: 0 Melania
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 383 out of 775
  2. Mixed: 325 out of 775
  3. Negative: 67 out of 775
775 movie reviews
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Amy Nicholson
    Silence
    It's possible to watch Silence and see a story about saints martyred by an oppressive government. It's also possible to see a told-you-so parable about imperialists who should have stayed home. I suspect Scorsese would be a little disappointed by either conclusion. But he stays quiet because he wants to challenge the audience to go deeper inside themselves, to separate our own religion (or lack of one) from the faith that guided us to it.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Nicholson
    The Fighter
    In its small moments, say when Walhberg sighs that his robe misspells "Micky," The Fighter feels clued-in to the very small, very tough world of a man trying to make his way out of his block-and after getting to know his family, you want to help him pack his bags.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Nicholson
    Look Into My Eyes
    The film stirs the soul less by the magic of ghosts than by the power of human connection.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Amy Nicholson
    The Naked Gun
    [Schaffer's] Naked Gun doesn’t want to regress; it wants to surprise and surpass while never punching down. The film is so committed to its PG-13 rating that it manages to pull off some truly filthy, bawdy slapstick without exposing a frame of skin.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Amy Nicholson
    Lurker
    Lurker is a teeth-grittingly great dramedy that insists there’s more tension in the entourage of a mellow hipster than a king.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Amy Nicholson
    Sleeping with Other People
    Headland's film might have been more engaging if it were about its supporting characters.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 67 Amy Nicholson
    Fifty Shades Darker
    The movies aren't so bad they're good. They're so brilliantly bad they're genius, with Foley dutifully presenting every inane plot point while gifting us excuses to laugh.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Nicholson
    Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
    McCormack is fantastic in a role so subtle it could appear flatlined and phony if people aren’t playing attention.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Amy Nicholson
    The Lost City of Z
    Instead of a thrilling climax, he chooses to let the story evaporate into the Amazon fog. Yet this odd film left a chill in my bones that I'll be thinking about all summer.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Nicholson
    Girl Picture
    Haapasalo blesses her trio with a pop soundtrack that crescendos at the peak of a kiss, and climactic crises that are a mite too readily resolved, adamantly gracing this awkward stage of girlhood with forgiveness — not hectoring lessons.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Nicholson
    The Ballad of Wallis Island
    I’d call “Wallis Island” a contender for the most quotable film of the year but there are so many good lines stacked on top of each other, and so much giggling on top of that, it’s impossible to keep up with Key’s wordplay.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Nicholson
    Blue Ruin
    As an action film — which in small bursts it is — Blue Ruin is disquieting and raw, like Commando turned inside out.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Nicholson
    Ex Machina
    It's a smart film about the shrinking divide between man and robot. It's also a hoot, an anti-comedy where all of the jokes double as threats, and vice versa.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Amy Nicholson
    The Tribe
    It's a staggering film, but not a brilliant one — a superior version would have played more with the gulf between our senses and theirs.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Amy Nicholson
    Rodney King
    Lee is credited as a director for filming a live performance of Rodney King on an outdoor stage in New York. But Lee mostly seems to have loaned Smith his brand name to get the monologue attention. He doesn't leave a fingerprint on the play, and didn't care about where to put the cameras. The angles make no sense; the edits are clumsy.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Nicholson
    Frankenstein
    This deservedly anticipated Frankenstein transforms that loneliness into stunning tableaux of Victor and his immortal Creature tethered together by their mutual self-loathing. One man’s heart never turned on. One can’t get his heart to turn off. Ours breaks.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Amy Nicholson
    Kedi
    What lingers is Kedi’s awareness that the city is alive.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Amy Nicholson
    The Substance
    If it weren’t for Moore and Qualley hurling themselves into the shared role, it’d be as flat as a scotch-taped pin-up. If it weren’t for Moore, I’m not even sure it would work.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Nicholson
    The Blue Trail
    This is a rebellious, empathetic adventure story about a grandmother who catches on that her society needs to learn how to think freely.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Nicholson
    Clemency
    If Woodard is hoping for her overdue second Oscar nomination after 1983’s “Cross Creek,” she’s got a decent shot with this excruciating character arc. Yet, the actress is even better in the scenes where Bernadine simply gets drunk, even if she still can’t talk about anything but work.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Nicholson
    Victoria
    This sparse marvel leaves the audience rattled by how small decisions lead to big consequences. Still, you're most likely to leave the theater gushing about the cast's bravura unbroken performances.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Nicholson
    Disenchanted
    Adams doesn’t gain much by returning for Disenchanted, a cluttered and noisy sequel directed by Adam Shankman from a screenplay by Brigitte Hales. Neither does the original film’s fan base.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Nicholson
    Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
    For all its clichés, this furious and discomfiting film tugs on your conscience for days, making a powerful case to turn the American public’s attention back to a conflict it would rather forget.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Amy Nicholson
    The Royal Hotel
    Green is a storyteller with such control that we don’t leave the theater feeling patronized or hectored. She’s thought everything out, and planned it so that every scene in The Royal Hotel is as gripping as it is pointed.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Amy Nicholson
    Burden
    Hedlund’s humble, hard-to-love performance makes the aptly named Burden work as both a portrait of one weak-minded man, and as a study of the ideas people carry without questioning why.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Amy Nicholson
    Better Man
    Even as the movie captures Williams’ recklessness, it’s also a convincing sketch of his artistic growth and commitment.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Nicholson
    The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
    Arnow’s sophisticated point — the one referenced in the film’s unwieldy title — is what drives interest until our own spirits snap.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Nicholson
    Presence
    Presence is being sold as a ghost story, but it’s more like a family drama disguised under a sheet. The eye holes are the only thing separating it from a thousand other ordinary little films about the injuries people do to those they love. Otherwise, the story doesn’t have enough flesh on its bones to hold our interest.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Amy Nicholson
    Beyond the Reach
    Madec and Ben's showdown becomes a battle to see which type of man is best equipped for survival: the well-funded scoundrel or the honest grunt. The film is too honest itself to always give us the answer we want. It's also too dully on-the-nose to entertain.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Amy Nicholson
    Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary is wholesome science fiction that satisfies like a jumbo serving of apple pie and milk.
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