Chris McCoy
Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:
Chris McCoy is the Film/TV Editor for The Memphis Flyer. He has been writing about film and television professionally since 2001, and also writes travel, science, profiles and general interest articles on a freelance basis. Along with his wife, Laura Jean Hocking, he is the co-owner of the film and video production company Oddly Buoyant Productions. He has directed three feature films, including the award-winning Memphis punk rock documentary Antenna, as well as numerous short films and music videos.
Favorites:
Mad Max: Fury Road Moonlight Us Out Of The Past Faces, Places Close Encounters of the Third Kind Star Wars: The Last Jedi Treasure of the Sierra Madre Man With A Movie Camera The General This Is What Love In Action Looks Like Dolemite Is My Name
Publications:
Memphis Flyer
Movie Reviews Only
T-Meter | Title | Year | Review | |
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52% | Coming 2 America (2021) |
This is a pop confection whose only goal is to entertain as broadly as possible. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Mar 6, 2021
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96% | Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) |
Kaluuya's earth-shaking performance may be the headline, but everything from the noir-toned cinematography to the banging score is honed to a razor edge. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Feb 17, 2021
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98% | Minari (2020) |
The stakes in Minari are refreshingly low. No one is saving the world; they're just trying to keep a marriage together and food on the table. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Feb 12, 2021
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94% | Nomadland (2021) |
McDormand's performance might just be the best of her storied career. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Feb 10, 2021
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59% | Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) |
Somewhere along the line, Jenkins lost the plot. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Dec 26, 2020
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100% | J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs & The Church of the SubGenius (2020) |
In many ways, the SubGenius were ahead of their time. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Dec 18, 2020
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25% | Hillbilly Elegy (2020) |
The Grapes of Wrath this ain't. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Dec 4, 2020
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98% | David Byrne's American Utopia (2020) |
In this time of darkness, Byrne and Lee say we can once again come together to pursue that elusive dream of utopia. With this singularly joyous film, they are leading by example. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Oct 22, 2020
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89% | Save Yourselves! (2020) |
Shot before the pandemic, Save Yourselves! captures the feeling of isolation, and having your worst fears realized on the regular. If that's not relatable in 2020, I don't know what is. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Oct 8, 2020
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86% | The Social Dilemma (2020) |
Hi, my name's Chris, and I'm a social media addict. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Sep 25, 2020
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73% | Mulan (2020) |
Unlike some movies in the $100-million club, Mulan puts the money on the screen. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Sep 22, 2020
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70% | Tenet (2020) |
Tenet addresses some important themes, such as the dangers of technology concentrating world-shattering powers in the hands of unaccountable individuals, but it treats the world as an abstraction of physics, not as a real place where real people live. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Sep 22, 2020
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82% | Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) |
I have great admiration for films that know exactly what they want to do and spend all their time doing it. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Sep 3, 2020
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96% | Class Action Park (2020) |
The wave pool had a "death zone". - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Sep 3, 2020
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88% | Desert One (2020) |
Barbara Kopple is one of America's greatest and most important documentary directors. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Aug 26, 2020
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72% | An American Pickle (2020) |
An American Pickle is about the feeling that the past would be disappointed in the present. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Aug 12, 2020
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83% | She Dies Tomorrow (2020) |
Call it Panic Attack: The Motion Picture. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Aug 12, 2020
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80% | The Old Guard (2020) |
The good news is, The Old Guard is better than Highlander II - but that's true of literally every movie ever. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Aug 5, 2020
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93% | Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020) |
It's like two dozen character sketches stuck together with gum found under a bar table, and I mean that as a compliment. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jul 29, 2020
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94% | Palm Springs (2020) |
If you're going to play in the Ramis/Murray sandbox, you better bring your A game. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jul 16, 2020
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98% | Hamilton (2020) |
No soundstage-bound film will ever match the blood-and-guts heroism of these glorious humans facing a full house on a Friday night. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jul 3, 2020
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92% | Da 5 Bloods (2020) |
Spike Lee does not make tidy movies. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jun 22, 2020
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87% | Shirley (2020) |
The real fireworks happen when the camera is pointed at Elisabeth Moss. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jun 16, 2020
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79% | How to Build a Girl (2020) |
How to Build a Girl succeeds as a feminist Almost Famous because Feldstein is so successful at tracing the critic's arc from naiveté to cynicism to, finally, hard-won sincerity. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted May 14, 2020
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100% | Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020) |
It's an exquisitely crafted documentary with humor and pathos that will forever change the way you look at sidewalk wheelchair ramps. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted May 7, 2020
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94% | Beastie Boys Story (2020) |
What Beastie Boys Story lacks in detail, it makes up for in pathos, a word you probably wouldn't have associated with the guys who wrote "Cooky Puss." - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Apr 29, 2020
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91% | Uncorked (2020) |
One thing Uncorked gets right about Memphis barbecue is the deeply personal connection our restaurateurs have with their cuisine. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Apr 2, 2020
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38% | Wendy (2020) |
Just sit back and let the beauty of Wendy flow over you, and escape to Neverland for a few precious minutes. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Mar 19, 2020
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91% | The Invisible Man (2020) |
This isn't a film about "what would you do if you could be invisible?" It's about domestic abuse. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Feb 28, 2020
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62% | The Call of the Wild (2020) |
It's a grizzled Harrison Ford and a St. Bernard tromping through the idyllic Canadian wilderness. I may be a sardonic film critic, but I'm not made of stone. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Feb 27, 2020
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74% | The Photograph (2020) |
The question becomes, will Mae and Michael make the same mistake of sacrificing happiness for success? One thing's for sure: They're going to look good doing it. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Feb 20, 2020
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78% | Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) |
The journey of Harley from henchwoman to antagonist, and her determination to get out from under the shadow of her more famous boyfriend, is where the energies of the all-woman creative team have been directed. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Feb 17, 2020
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100% | Honeyland (2019) |
It's a humane and fascinating story told with nuance and compassion for all of its subjects - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 31, 2020
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77% | Bad Boys for Life (2020) |
It's Smith and Lawrence who redeem this film, to the extent that it is redeemed. They're both miraculously well-preserved, their chemistry is great, and Smith's movie-star charisma is set to stun. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 23, 2020
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95% | Roma (2018) |
Fundamentally, it's a character piece about Chloe. Aparicio's placid, yet expressive face sometimes recalls Renée Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc. Hers is a brilliant, unmannered performance. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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95% | If Beale Street Could Talk (2019) |
Director Barry Jenkins has broken the rule that mediocre books make the best movies. He takes Baldwin's dauntingly nonlinear literary structure and makes it smooth and easily understandable. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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97% | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) |
Impossible shots coupled with a breezy screenplay make this the most fun superhero movie since Sam Raimi shot an upside down Toby Maguire kissing Kirsten Dunst. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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83% | Creed II (2018) |
Creed II is like the best parts of Rocky II-V hot glued together. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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78% | Green Book (2018) |
Green Book is well-meaning and competently made, but anodyne and ultimately ephemeral entertainment. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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89% | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) |
On an artistic level, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an unreserved success. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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88% | Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) |
It's charming and self-aware, but not enough to really elevate Ralph Breaks The Internet beyond a routine kid-pleasing pot boiler. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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36% | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) |
For most of Crimes, Rowling, who wrote the screenplay, and director David Yates, who brought the original Potter film octalogy to its conclusion, chase one subplot after another and end up nowhere. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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93% | Wildlife (2018) |
Wildlife is the inside story of a family burning down, but it is also a tale of toxic masculinity and capitalism's spiritual toll. It's a work that bridges the intimate and expansive with deceptive ease. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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61% | Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) |
This is record label-approved hagiography, and those doing the approving seem to see Mercury's sexual orientation as a character flaw he must overcome. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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93% | The Old Man & the Gun (2018) |
Lowery, who had the unenviable task of directing someone who has both a Best Director and Best Picture Oscar, is at the top of his game. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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87% | First Man (2018) |
There are flashes of brilliance in First Man, but like the stuck thruster that almost killed Neil Armstrong before he ever got to the moon, the shoddy photography sends the whole thing spinning out of control. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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90% | A Star Is Born (2018) |
This is high melodrama of a kind rarely seen these days, or executed this well at any time. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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24% | The Nun (2018) |
If you're ready to kick off horror season a few weeks early, there are lots of opportunities to do better than this tedious nun-sense. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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91% | Crazy Rich Asians (2018) |
The film succeeds because Chu and company are strongly empathetic toward the targets of their comedy. The foibles of the Crazy Rich Asians are just like ours, only more expensive. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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80% | Alpha (2018) |
Alpha ultimately won me over with its pluck. It's not a perfect movie, but its heart is in the right place, and that's what counts. - Memphis Flyer
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| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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