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

Movies

T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
96%	A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)	In the hands of a director less skilled and empathetic than Marielle Heller, a film like this could easily spiral into the maudlin. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 2, 2019
99%	Parasite (Gisaengchung) (2019)	Parasite is at once a comedy and a Hitchcockian thriller with shades of mid-period Cohen Bros thrown in for good ironic measure. This film is a solid must-see for anyone who values quality filmmaking with something to say. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 22, 2019
93%	Us (2019)	Us roots itself in the subconscious from the get-go, and then weaponizes it against you. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
81%	Long Shot (2019)	The way Long Shot differentiates itself from the sexist sitcom cliche is by exploring the difficulty men have in ceding power to women, even if-perhaps especially if-the women are clearly more skilled and intelligent. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
No Score Yet	Stranded in Canton (2005)	Memphis attracts eccentrics, and William Eggleston hung out with the best of them. And by "best" I mean "weirdest". - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
97%	Booksmart (2019)	Every now and then, a movie comes along that is so of its time that it comes to define its time. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
90%	Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)	Spider-Man works better when he's alone, just a scared high school kid trying to negotiate a crazy world where Jake Gyllenhaal wears a fishbowl on his head. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
85%	Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019)	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is something Tarantino hasn't been in a long time-fun. If that seems like a strange thing to say about a film centered on the gruesome cult murder of seven people, that's because it's not really what the film is about. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
89%	The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)	Did the world really need another blowhard Arthur and a Round Table of gritty, humorless fanatics? The Kid Who Would Be King's good-natured positivity seems much more appropriate to the moment. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
66%	Vice (2018)	What do you do about a problem like Dick Cheney? - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
43%	What Men Want (2019)	One of these days, someone's going to write a leading role worthy of Taraji P. Henson. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
61%	Alita: Battle Angel (2019)	Ghost in the Shell covered similar thematic territory, but Alita is superior in every way. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
90%	How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)	The kids who first discovered How to Train Your Dragon are teenagers now, contemplating their place in the world, and their animated friends have grown up with them. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
54%	Five Feet Apart (2019)	Ask any high school teacher - or, for that matter, any high schooler - and they'll tell you the surest way to get two teenagers to fall in love is to tell them they can't see each other. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
57%	Pet Sematary (2019)	Pet Sematary is a perfectly functional little horror movie. It doesn't truck in '80s nostalgia, and its significant changes to the source material mostly turn out to be improvements. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
89%	Missing Link (2019)	If only the other elements of Missing Link were as strong as the visuals, we'd have a masterpiece on our hands. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
94%	Avengers: Endgame (2019)	As the dust clears, Disney stands like Thanos astride Earth-616. They have won, but what kind of world is left behind? - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
86%	John Wick (2014)	John Wick is the slick, empty, cruel hero the age of Trump deserves - but hey, at least he likes dogs! - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
14%	The Hustle (2019)	I didn't hate this movie, but the laughs never reached critical mass for me, either. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
41%	Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)	As the puny humans flail, Godzilla, the Cary Grant of giant monsters, emerges with his dignity intact. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
23%	Dark Phoenix (2019)	It's an ignominious end to a once-great franchise and a once-proud studio. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
97%	Toy Story 4 (2019)	The existence of Forky (Tony Hale) foregrounds all sorts of existential questions that hover around the Toy Story premise. He asks the first one himself: "Why am I alive?" Best not to think about it too much, Forky. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
56%	The Dead Don't Die (2019)	Jim Jarmusch's primary directing mode has always been that of the observer. He favors letting things play out in long takes, the better to get to know his characters, warts and all. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
53%	The Lion King (2019)	The kids today, they want reality. Remember Beauty and the Beast? Remember how much better it was when that singing candlestick looked real? It was $1.2 billion better. Imagine that, but with lions. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
99%	The Farewell (2019)	Written and directed by Lulu Wang, The Farewell plays out around dinner tables like an Ira Sachs family drama with a cutting, deadpan sense of humor. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
79%	Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)	Good bones are what keep Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark upright. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
80%	Good Boys (2019)	Good Boys knows how to successfully apply the Superbad formula but never manages to rise above it. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
88%	Ready or Not (2019)	Ready or Not is a nasty little bit of exploitation satire in the tradition of Little Shop of Horrors, and I'm frankly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
62%	It Chapter Two (2019)	It doesn't really hold together as a movie, but if you're invested in It, you'll probably dig It Chapter Two, even though it's really long and a bit of a slog in places. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
84%	Ad Astra (2019)	What holds it all together is a fantastic performance by Brad Pitt. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
69%	Joker (2019)	Where did the Joker come from? What's up with the clown schtick? Is his mom named Martha? All these questions and more are answered definitively by director Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix, and it only takes two ponderous hours. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
22%	Lucy in the Sky (2019)	I call these "sadstronaut" movies. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
60%	The Current War: Director's Cut (2019)	This is a complex story with huge historical repercussions and potentially something to say about our own late-stage capitalist moment. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
79%	Jojo Rabbit (2019)	Making fun of Nazis by directly portraying Hitler onscreen is making comedy with the difficulty level turned up to maximum. Waititi is up to the challenge. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
77%	Doctor Sleep (2019)	The funny thing about Doctor Sleep is that it is not so much a horror movie as a good, old-fashioned supernatural thriller. It's more Dark Shadows than Halloween. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019