[1][2] In October of that year, he joined The Hollywood Reporter, where he subsequently served as chief film critic until 2020.
[6] While at ETHS, he made a silent, plotless movie on Super 8 film titled Mimi after the nickname of his featured classmate who later became known as Claudia Jennings.
[10] McCarthy edited Kings of Bs: Working Within the Hollywood System with Charles Flynn, a book that discusses the great filmmakers of B movies, which was published in 1975.
[2][11] In 1990, McCarthy wrote the PBS documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer which won him an Emmy Award.
[12] He directed four documentaries about film: Visions of Light (1992), Claudia Jennings (1995), Forever Hollywood (1999), and Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient (2007).
He was rehired by The Hollywood Reporter in October 2010 as the chief film critic under Janice Min.
[5] At age 43, McCarthy married documentary filmmaker Sasha Alpert on July 4, 1993, at his family's ranch in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.