Opinions on movies vary wildly, so it's nearly impossible to find films that everybody loves, and yet, there at least three films that seem to be adored universally. Even more impressive, one of them is a brand new film in theaters now. Greta Gerwig's coming of age comedy Lady Bird is currently sitting with a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, a feat which is only more impressive by the fact that the film has 150 filed reviews. Only two other movies have achieved that score with that many reviews, the documentary Man on Wire and Pixar's Toy Story 2.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes is given a lot of credit these days for both making and breaking films by virtue of its ability to give moviegoers an overview of critic consensus with a look. The site's Tomatometer has been blamed by many for the poor box office performance of numerous films. As such, a perfect score is a big deal, if only because it's so close to impossible to achieve. I'm literally rechecking the score every few minutes as I write this, just to be sure a single negative review has ruined this entire story. All it takes is one person who didn't love the movie and it all falls apart.
The documentary Man on Wire, about Philippe Petit's 1974 crossing of the World Trade Center towers on a tightrope, kept its perfect score with 157 total reviews. Toy Story 2 is essentially the Rotten Tomatoes champion, as it has 163 reviews making its perfect score. Fandango's Erik Davis wonders if Lady Bird might see 14 more positive reviews before it's all said and done. While Lady Bird does have fewer reviews than the other two films, it's currently tracking with a slightly better average score than both, at 8.8 out of 10.
Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, a 17-year-old high school student in Sacramento, CA. The movie's story, of a teenager searching for her place in the world, isn't a new idea, but it's handled in unique and interesting ways in Lady Bird, not the least of which being its choice of location, California's often overlooked capital city. Lady Bird's overwhelmingly positive response certainly makes one wonder where it will find itself when the major awards begin to get handed out. There are certainly acting nominations to be considered for both Ronan as well as Laurie Metcalf, who plays Lady Bird's mother. Greta Gerwig may also find herself under consideration as a writer and director.
We hope we're not jinxing Lady Bird's perfect run simply by bringing up how well it's doing. The film is great, and even if it doesn't become the most critically loved film in the history of the world, it's good. You should go see it.
