THE GODFATHER, ON THE WATERFRONT, THE WIZARD OF OZ, GOODFELLAS, and JAWS. These are all movies that have at least one negative review on Rotten Tomatoes, despite being some of the most beloved movies of all time. It just goes to show you any movie can have a dissenter…unless that movie is LADY BIRD, the smash hit indie film from Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan, which has officially become RT’s best-reviewed movie of all time.
The record was broken yesterday, with Erik Davis, managing editor of Fandango (which owns RT), pointing out over the last few days the movie was close to breaking TOY STORY 2’s record of having 163 positive reviews and zero bad ones. BIRD has flown by that, and now has 170 positive reviews and no negative ones, making it the best-reviewed movie (at least on RT) ever. Gerwig spoke with RT about the (current) honor:
This is completely amazing and so incredibly appreciated by the entire team that made LADY BIRD. We put our heart and souls into this movie, and the last step of this deeply collaborative art form of filmmaking is giving the film to the audience and the film critics. That there has been such a warm reception is a dream come true. Thank you to everyone who has seen the film and has written about it so thoughtfully. We are all on cloud nine and using our tomato emoji more than we ever thought possible.
Now, this doesn’t mean BIRD now gets to be toted as the best movie ever. It’s difficult to sort through all the reviews and truly pluck out the “it’s amazing” from the “it’s good” reviews. However, the movie has an average score of 8.9 out of 10, which we can take to mean the average review is glowing. This has helped BIRD’s box office total, and the movie has made $10 million while being in only 791 theaters. It will surely expand this month as it becomes a legit Oscar contender.
As the movie expands it could easily result in a negative review or two, removing its crown from its head. If anything, TOY STORY 2’s rating is more impressive because it was only ever a major release and has maintained it’s score for two decades. But still, LADY BIRD’s universal acclaim is nothing short of impressive and it deserves some acknowledgment. I have yet to see it, but I predict it will continue to rise and rise on the charts, which means we all better get on to see it.