It’s important to remember that Rotten Tomatoes is merely one metric when judging a movie’s quality, especially since it merely categorizes reviews as “fresh” or “rotten.” There may be a 17-point difference between the top- and worst-performing best picture nominees, but “Maestro” has nothing to be ashamed of, with a robust 80%. It outpaces a couple of the nominees from last year’s ceremony. “Elvis” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” have Rotten Tomatoes scores of 77% and 76%, respectively. Even those don’t hold a candle to some of the questionable nominations from years past.
The best picture nominee with the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score ever is 1936’s “Anthony Adverse,” standing at a rotten 20%. However, there are only 10 reviews on its page, so perhaps it’s a bit unfair to call it the out-and-out worst. It may be more prudent to look at a more recent nominee generally panned by critics, such as 2011’s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” which has a disappointing score of 45% with 193 reviews. Even 2021’s “Don’t Look Up,” which was nominated for a few Oscars, only has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 55%.
It’s clear the Oscar voting body occasionally deviates from the consensus of professional reviewers. However, a strong batch of movies is up for best picture this year. All of them have their merits, so the eventual winner will be worthy no matter what.
