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This Coming-of-Age Indie Film Is Now Rotten Tomatoes’ Highest-Rated Movie Ever

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Tom Huddleston Jr.
Tom Huddleston Jr.
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By
Tom Huddleston Jr.
Tom Huddleston Jr.
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November 28, 2017, 2:22 PM ET

A new indie movie about a teenager’s love-hate relationship with her hometown has passed an animated tale about talking toys to become the best-reviewed film ever on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie reviews aggregator said this week that Lady Bird, the coming-of-age film released Nov. 3, has topped 1999’s Toy Story 2 (Pixar) as the film with more positive reviews and zero negative reviews (so far) than any other movie on the website. Lady Bird beat Toy Story 2‘s 163 “Fresh” reviews on Monday and the new movie, which stars Irish actress Saoirse Ronan, currently boasts 170 positive reviews from movie critics against absolutely zero negative reviews.

Ronan, who stars as film’s title character, is generating quite a bit of Oscars buzz with her performance, as is writer-director Greta Gerwig, whose semi-autobiographical movie about her hometown of Sacramento, Calif. is her first behind the camera. Gerwig called the movie’s record-setting Rotten Tomatoes score “completely amazing and so incredibly appreciated by the entire team that made Lady Bird” in a statement to Rotten Tomatoes.

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“The movie’s Tomatometer score will be subject to change as it continues to platform from limited release, likely into the next year,” Rotten Tomatoes editor Alex Vo wrote in an article explaining the new record. In other words, it is still possible that a rogue reviewer could tarnish Lady Bird‘s perfect score, though the huge number of positive reviews the film has already compiled would still easily make it one of 2017’s best-reviewed movies.

And, to be fair, there are other movies that have more positive reviews than Lady Bird. Walt Disney’s Thor: Ragnarok actually has 277 “Fresh” reviews this year, along with 24 “Rotten” reviews, for an overall score of 92%, while fellow indie film The Big Sick received 233 positive reviews, and a score of 98%, earlier this year. Lady Bird simply has the most positive reviews of any movie with a perfect, 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s also worth noting that Rotten Tomatoes’ scores for classic films such as 1972’s The Godfather (99% with 84 “Fresh” reviews) and 1941’s Citizen Kane (100% on just 75 reviews) are culled from far fewer critics’ reviews than newer films.

Released by indie film studios A24 (Moonlight) earlier this month, Lady Bird only went from a limited release to wider distribution this past weekend, and the film has so far pulled in $10.7 million in domestic theaters, according to Box Office Mojo.

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