He joined Time in 1980 as as associate editor, and became a Senior Writer in 1985. Before joining TIME, he was a film critic for National Review, New Times, Maclean's of Canada and SoHo Weekly News. He was Editor for Film Comment magazine from 1970 to 1990.

The recent cover stories Corliss has written include profiles of Kevin Costner (June 1989), Tom Cruise (December 1989), Jodie Foster (October 1991) and directors Kenneth Branagh (1989), David Lynch (September 1990), and Woody Allen and Mia Farrow (August 1992). He has also written about X-rated pop culture (April 1990), the controversial film JFK (December 1991) an interview with Emma Thompson (March 1993), and three stories on Michael Jackson. Corliss writes about pop music and sport stories, too.

Corliss has a bachelor's degree from Saint Joseph's College in Philadelphia and a master's in film studies from Columbia University. He wrote the books Talking Pictures, a study of Hollywood screenwriters, and Greta Garbo (both 1974).

He lives in New York City with his wife, Mary, a curator in the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film.