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
TV

T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
96%	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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
84%	Creed II (2018)	Creed II is like the best parts of Rocky II-V hot glued together. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
78%	Green Book (2018)	Green Book is well-meaning and competently made, but anodyne and ultimately ephemeral entertainment. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
91%	The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)	On an artistic level, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an unreserved success. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
94%	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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
60%	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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
26%	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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
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 EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
46%	The Meg (2018)	Like every other shark movie ever. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
96%	BlacKkKlansman (2018)	In Washington and Driver, Lee finds two actors who understand his methods and deliver exceptional performances. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 21, 2020
80%	Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)	In Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, things just kind of happen to provide excuses to sing listlessly. These renditions are so flat and lifeless, they make the original versions sound raw and edgy. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
93%	Sorry to Bother You (2018)	It's probably impossible to make a film that captures 2018's insane zeitgeist, but Boots Riley has come uncomfortably close. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
77%	The King (2018)	The King is required viewing for not just Elvis fans and Memphians, but anyone who strives to understand the state of our sprawling democratic experiment. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
88%	Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)	Reed's playful sense and light touch manages to avoid superhero fatigue for the most part - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
55%	The First Purge (2018)	Visually, this film is the best of the franchise, which have always leaned heavily on good production design and let the cuts fall where they may. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
48%	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)	The script, by Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly, never met a cliche it didn't like. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
98%	Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)	Documentaries are always judged first by their subject, and Neville has a knack for choosing exactly the right ones. A master of documentary structure, he makes the case for Rogers' continued relevance right out of the gate. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
89%	Hereditary (2018)	There have been great screamers before, but Collette takes it to the next level with a guttural howl from the depths of her putrefying soul. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
94%	Incredibles 2 (2018)	It's a genuine crowd pleaser that rewards viewing on the big screen, which is what a summer movie is all about. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
69%	Ocean's 8 (2018)	Director Gary Ross fundamentally lacks the Soderbergh snap that was on display in last year's Logan Lucky. But if you're just in it to look at some of the best actresses in the business pal around for a frothy summer treat, Ocean's 8 will do just fine. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
93%	First Reformed (2018)	To watch First Reformed is to stare unsparingly into the most basic, unanswerable philosophical questions we have. It is, as Toller says, both exhilarating and exhausting. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
70%	Adrift (2018)	Adrift is a solid, midrange picture of the type that is increasingly rare. It's star-driven, suspenseful, and just plain gorgeous to look at. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
70%	Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)	The problem with Solo does not stem from its chaotic production history. It's that the star never fills the role. Ehrenreich is upstaged by literally every member of the supporting cast. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
84%	Deadpool 2 (2018)	Deadpool 2 is so full of superhero movie in-jokes, one suspects it will be almost incomprehensible in a few years. But for now, this is the franchise we need to deflate all the franchises we probably don't. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
86%	Tully (2018)	Tully is all about the problems of excessive expectations of perfection thrust upon women in general and mothers in particular. Once you watch it, you're going to want to do something nice for your mom. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
85%	Avengers: Infinity War (2018)	This is a film designed for superfans, and it could please many. But there inevitably comes a moment in long, episodic serials when the audience realizes that the catharsis they seek will never come. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
89%	You Were Never Really Here (2018)	Ramsay's work is as chilling as it is technically flawless. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
90%	Isle of Dogs (2018)	This is a kids movie that knows the kids can handle the darkness better than the grown ups. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
72%	Ready Player One (2018)	Ready Player One is a lot of fun, but it also feels like the end of something. Now that Spielberg is filming his own fanfic, maybe postmodernism has reached its final form. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
94%	Loveless (Nelyubov) (2018)	It's a wrenching, deeply thoughtful film that, once it casts its spell, makes it impossible to turn away. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
44%	Pacific Rim Uprising (2018)	Pacific Rim: Uprising is big and dumb, but at least it's having fun. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
24%	7 Days in Entebbe (2018)	The only question is, why would anyone pay good money to remake a Charles Bronson TV movie from the 1970s, and do it so badly at that? For that, I have no answers. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
42%	A Wrinkle in Time (2018)	L'Engle's admonitions to embrace your weirdness are reduced to forced whimsey... A Wrinkle In Time was long thought to be unfilmable, and this version suggests that conventional wisdom was right. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
45%	Red Sparrow (2018)	Here's the thing about Red Sparrow. It's completely ridiculous, way too long, and yet also, somehow entertaining. A lot of that probably comes down to Lawrence, who pretty much just brazens her way through the proceedings. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
88%	Annihilation (2018)	Even as it relies on horror tropes for shape Annihilation's mission is to plumb the depths of Lovecraftian existential fear. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
97%	Black Panther (2018)	Curtiz had Errol Flynn, a man of exceptional physique and deceptively subtle acting acumen. Coogler has Chadwick Boseman, who comes into his own as a heroic movie star in the Flynn tradition. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 17, 2020
95%	Call Me by Your Name (2018)	Guadagnino has absorbed some of that Merchant Ivory mojo, with its sotto vocce emotions and divine European languor. But he's also fallen victim to his inspiration's vices as well. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2020
92%	Phantom Thread (2018)	Perhaps Phantom Thread is best understood as the director coming to grips with his own genius brain. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2020
88%	The Post (2018)	If you're a fan of good film craft -- as all right-thinking people should be -- you will flip for The Post. Spielberg may be the best steward of old-school film grammar we have left, and all of the classic virtues are on display. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2020
89%	I, Tonya (2018)	I, Tonya is a film whose smiling face conceals some very sharp teeth. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2020
76%	Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)	Kasdan knows this is all about his stars' charisma, and keeps them bouncing off each other in pleasing ricochets. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2020
92%	The Shape of Water (2017)	The Shape Of Water will charm the pants off of you, and you won't even mind the fishy smell afterwards. - Memphis Flyer EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2020