‘Lady Bird’ Sets Rotten Tomatoes Record, Sparks Oscar Best Picture Talk

Lady Bird has done what few other movies have by becoming the most reviewed movie to get a perfect Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film, helmed by mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, received a 100 percent Fresh rating from 170 reviewers so far.

Lady Bird is now on top of the highest rated list of movies with the most reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, beating 1999’s Toy Story 2, which has 163 Fresh reviews. Lady Bird has also reached the 52nd spot on the Rotten Tomatoes Top Movies list, according to UPROXX. It now sits behind Alien and is followed by The Philadelphia Story. The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane remains the top two movies of all time on Rotten Tomatoes.

Gerwig, the 34-year-old director and actress, also wrote Lady Bird. Upon learning of its record-breaking feat on Rotten Tomatoes, Gerwig expressed her appreciation and disbelief via an interview with the popular review aggregation site.

“This is completely amazing and so incredibly appreciated by the entire team that made Lady Bird,” Gerwig said. “We put our hearts 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.”

Lady Bird is not only huge with Rotten Tomatoes reviewers. The movie received a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival while Ronan and Metcalf were also lauded for their brilliant performances. Gerwig also received critical acclaim for her efforts.

This early, Lady Bird is being considered as one of the best films of 2017. In fact, there is already talk that Lady Bird might walk away with the Best Picture Award in the 2018 Academy Awards. Whether Lady Bird makes it at the Oscars or not, the movie has already solidified itself as one of the best ones this year. Gerwig has won the Rare Pearl Award at the Denver International Film Festival while Saoirse Ronan won Best Actress at the Gotham Awards.

Rotten Tomatoes has somewhat become the go-to movie review site though it shouldn’t be “considered the end-all/be-all for film criticism,” as Forbes said. The website’s ratings are said to have an effect on whether a new film will become a box office hit or a bomb. With 170 (and counting) Fresh ratings, Lady Bird is likely on its way to a successful run.

As Mashable noted, Lady Bird is not the only film that has gotten a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The other films to get a perfect Fresh rating on the Tomatometer were only reviewed a few times. After Lady Bird and Toy Story 2, the films with the most reviews which received a 100 percent Fresh rating were Man On Wire (2008) and Things to Come (2016) with 157 and 128 reviews, respectively.