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Cory Woodroof
Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:
Cory Woodroof is a film critic based in Nashville, Tennessee. He writes for the Nashville Scene, The Playlist, The Young Folks and The Falcoholic, among other publications. He is also a board member with the Music City Film Critics' Association.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Juror #2 (2024) |
Nicholas Hoult casts such a conflicted pall of guilt and compromise, a perfect conduit for Eastwood’s investigation. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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Blitz (2024) |
The film’s general narrative doesn’t quite match the bouncing survey of its setting, but once Benjamin Clementine shows up in one of the year’s breakout turns, the film really finds its footing. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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Conclave (2024) |
This is closer to The Da Vinci Code than First Reformed, but it’s a real gem all the same. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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Anora (2024) |
This is an excellent film, boundless in its energy and pragmatically grounded to the reality of its characters. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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Venom: The Last Dance (2024) |
Hardy’s endearingly oblong central performance and the way he vibes with his alien pal make all of these compulsively watchable when they’re on screen. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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His Three Daughters (2023) |
Azazel Jacobs is so smart to just get out of the way and let these three do their thing. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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Piece By Piece (2024) |
A Pharrell LEGO documentary is as cool as it sounds. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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The Wild Robot (2024) |
Not to be hyperbolic, but this might be DreamWorks Animation’s best since Shrek. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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Saturday Night (2024) |
Reitman’s film is pretty remarkable, expectedly extolling Lorne Michaels and company’s genius of giving such chaos shape and iconography but also subtly recognizing the explicit danger of giving this much power to such a happy accident. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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A Different Man (2024) |
This rocked. “Homer’s Enemy” from the perspective of Frank Grimes.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Nov 12, 2024
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Jerry Maguire (1996) |
Transportive cinema is never better when a great actor and director (Cameron Crowe) are, well, showing us the money and letting us go on an emotional shopping spree. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 26, 2024
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Big Fan (2009) |
A football spin on Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Big Fan drives home the dangerous mental elasticity of obsessing over something you have nothing to do with. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 26, 2024
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Undefeated (2011) |
It’s hard not to get a little misty during this one. It wields a startling power. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 26, 2024
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Friday Night Lights (2004) |
The 2004 drama filled the gaping need for a film about toxic small-town football culture and gave the sport a much more realistic slant. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 26, 2024
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The Waterboy (1998) |
The Waterboy is a much sharper satire of Saturday mornings in the South than you’d expect. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 26, 2024
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School Ties (1992) |
School Ties took the bold approach to show why being great at sports won’t save you from being exploitation and prejudice. It’s a darn good movie. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 26, 2024
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Draft Day (2014) |
Draft Day is ridiculous NFL pulp. It’s outlandish that a movie exists about the NFL Draft, but it’s hard not to get swept away with how shameless this film is to entertain.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 26, 2024
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Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) |
Joker: Folie à Deux is a movie horrified by its predecessor, horrified by its success, its maddening cowardice to pick a lane, its public misinterpretation forged into perverse celebration of a lunatic with a bone to pick.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Oct 05, 2024
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Shrek 2 (2004) |
The second Shrek film is nearly as good as the first, maintaining the relentless humor and upping the ante with the scale and emotional stakes.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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Rise of the Guardians (2012) |
Peter Ramsey’s William Joyce adaptation is one of the most underrated animated films of the 2010s, a stirring fantasy adventure with some of the most gorgeous imagery the studio has ever produced.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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The Prince of Egypt (1998) |
DreamWorks Animation tried to go toe-to-toe with Disney’s 2D 1990s renaissance with The Prince of Egypt, and it wound up being one of the studio’s best films. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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How to Train Your Dragon (2010) |
Bringing in Chris Sanders from Disney is still one of DreamWorks Animation’s best moves, as How to Train Your Dragon remains a classic.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) |
Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series turned out to be some of DreamWorks Animation’s best source material, as this wildly inventive adaptation was both hysterical and unafraid to take risks.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) |
The How to Train Your Dragon series is one of DreamWorks Animation’s proudest achievements, and the second film is a darker, more mature and just as gripping as the first.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) |
Monsters vs. Aliens was a really fun homage to 1950s sci-fi monster movies with an excellent voice cast and one of the better scripts in the studio’s history.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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Kung Fu Panda (2008) |
The first Kung Fu Panda film will always be special, even if an even better version was waiting just around the corner.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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Megalopolis (2024) |
Rather than pay self-homage to his grand works, Coppola plucks your head off your shoulders, puts it on a game board and spins it like a top around his kaleidoscopic fable of two worlds, one from his wildest dreams and another from his worst nightmares.
- For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 25, 2024
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Trap (2024) |
Shyamalan is completely in control of this brilliantly confined thriller, as you can tell he’s operating at a level of glee and mastery we haven’t seen from him since his heyday. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 10, 2024
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Alien: Romulus (2024) |
Alien: Romulus is the Xenomorph roller coaster from your worst nightmare that Disney World would never construct at one of its theme parks. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 10, 2024
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Twisters (2024) |
The rip-roaring kinda-sorta sequel to the 1996 cheeseball classic does exactly what it needs to do to keep you gripped to your seat all while keeping things fresh as possible to not make this feel overtly… cyclical. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 10, 2024
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) |
Even after all these years, Burton still finds a way to crawl into your heart and remind you why there are just few cinematic experiences as satisfying as the ones born of his imagination. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 06, 2024
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Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) |
Pee-wee Herman is and always will be a gift to mankind. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 05, 2024
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Ed Wood (1994) |
Is this Tim Burton’s best movie? It might just be! - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 05, 2024
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Edward Scissorhands (1990) |
For a guy who has made some really great movies, this is very much one of Burton’s best and most heart-wrenching. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 05, 2024
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Beetlejuice (1988) |
Beetlejuice is the garish granddaddy of kinda small-scale kinda family-friendly horror comedy as Tim Burton is in his full element. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 05, 2024
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Big Fish (2003) |
This is perhaps Burton’s most soulful film besides Edward Scissorhands, a lovely fable weaved with tall tales and a grand heart. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 05, 2024
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Big Eyes (2014) |
It’d be great to see Burton work with Amy Adams again. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Sep 05, 2024
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Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) |
[Deadpool & Wolverine is] the anti-MCU movie, flipping through a dusty scrapbook from under the bed that reminds us unceasing uniformity never beats a fast food meal with a last, greasy bite. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 26, 2024
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X2 (2003) |
The greatest X-Men film we’ve ever gotten remains X2, an absolutely spectacular reminder of how well these characters translate to film when they’re given the right vehicle. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Logan (2017) |
Logan remains a monumental work in the genre. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) |
You can feel the gripping emotional undercurrent, admire the level of difficulty in the story that’s told or just rewatch at the Quicksilver “Time in a Bottle” sequence to really appreciate how great this movie is. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Deadpool (2016) |
If you can stomach a handful of jokes that have gone stale since its 2016 release, there’s still plenty to love with this sardonic delight. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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X-Men (2000) |
It’s a tantalizing sample and a very solid time capsule for where the genre was at the turn of the millennium. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) |
You’ll have a fine time watching it, but you won’t remember much of it afterward. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) |
There are moments of genuine inspiration here, but they don’t add up all the way. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) |
It’s hard to really feel any strong emotions toward this film besides apathy, to be honest. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Dark Phoenix (2019) |
Dark Phoenix is certainly bad for the normal reasons a movie is bad, but it’s the passionless obligation with which the film operates that the most dispiriting aspect about it. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 22, 2024
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Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) |
Even if the film isn’t very good, you can’t ever say this one is boring. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) |
Once you really get going with the story, this is a dutiful sequel with a good bit to like. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) |
The long-gestating fourth installment in the series is a pretty big win, finding a nice blend between the breezy tone of the first installment and the kind of emotional heft that typically accompanies a legacy sequel. - For the Win (USA Today)
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| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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