Cory Finley is a St. Louis-born, Brooklyn-based screenwriter, playwright, and director. Finley wrote and directed the black comedy film Thoroughbreds, a feature film adapted from his play of the same name which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2017. He also directed the true crime dramedy film Bad Education starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney, which premiered on HBO and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie in 2020. He is a member of the Obie-winning Youngblood playwrights group at Ensemble Studio Theater, has received a commission from the Alfred P. Sloan foundation for playwriting, and was the inaugural recipient of the Gurney Playwrights Fund for his play The Feast at The Flea Theater.
Read moreShow less
Biography from TMDB.
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Director, writer and producer
- 7 on MovieCove · 9 credits in all
What are Cory Finley's films like?
Across a limited sample of 4 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Power and Self.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
A split, not a type: Ironic 1 · Wry 1 · Earnest 2
A split, not a type: Light 0 · Serious 3 · Dark 1
A split, not a type: Grounded 2 · Stylized 1 · Heightened 1
Gentle 0 · Charged 3 · Intense 1
Steady 0 · Shifting 3 · Whiplash 1
Straight-faced 2 · Some laughs 2 · Funny 0
Slow burn 2 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
Casual 0 · Engaged 3 · Full focus 1
A split, not a type: Easy watch 1 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 2
Resolved 1 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Cory Finley's films?
As of October 24, 2026, all 7 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for Cory Finley's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
9 credits, 7 with a MovieCove page.
Furious(2026)
Midcredits score: 86th percentile of all shows
The Plague(2025)
Midcredits score: 65th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 71st percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 39th percentile of all films
WeCrashed(2022)
Midcredits score: 71st percentile of all shows
Bad Education(2019)
Midcredits score: 87th percentile of all films
Sauna (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)
Thoroughbreds(2017)
Midcredits score: 70th percentile of all films
Burning Rainbow Farm (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 9 titles, 8 of them dated from 2018 to 2026.
Biggest box office
Thoroughbreds (2017)
Highest rated
Bad Education (2019)
Most popular right now
The Plague (2025)
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
Awards
2 major nominations and no wins, 2017–2019.
- Independent Spirit Award, nominated · Best First Screenplay
- Sundance award, nominated · Best of Next!
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Cory Finley's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 70th percentile, the median of all 5; across a limited sample of 4 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 72nd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up2
- 50th to 74th4
- 25th to 49th1
Shape of the crowd
None of their 7 titles divides audiences: 5 are Crowd Pleasers.
- Crowd Pleaser5
- Mixed2
Reviewers score the atmosphere 76/100 and the pacing 44/100 in their films, across 4 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Is Cory Finley's work okay for kids?
Across a limited sample of up to 4 MovieCove titles with content scores.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted.
Who does Cory Finley work with?
People who share at least 2 of Cory Finley's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Louise Ford shares the most, 3.
Composers, cinematographers and editors
- Louise FordShared titles: Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023), Bad Education (2019), Thoroughbreds (2017)See all 3 shared titles with Louise Ford
- Lyle VincentShared titles: Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023), Bad Education (2019), Thoroughbreds (2017)See all 3 shared titles with Lyle Vincent
- Michael AbelsShared titles: Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023), Bad Education (2019)See all 2 shared titles with Michael Abels
Producers
- Jeffrey PenmanShared titles: Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023), Bad Education (2019)See all 2 shared titles with Jeffrey Penman
