Paddington mid-adventure in Paddington 2 (2018). / StudioCanal
Many movies are considered “generally good” or “generally bad,” but it’s not often that critics unanimously agree that a film is perfect. Though this type of perfection isn’t easy to measure with precision, Rotten Tomatoes’s “Tomatometer” might be the closest we can get. If all critics score a film at 100 percent, you can reasonably conclude it’s more than just “generally good.”
If you’re envisioning a list comprising solely Citizen Kane, a few Charlie Chaplin comedies, and other longtime classics, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. There are movies in the so-called “100% Club” to appeal to just about every kind of viewer. Arnold Schwarzenegger helped turn James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984) into the gold standard for atmospheric action movies, and Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy gave new meaning to modern romance in 1995’s Before Sunrise. Hawke didn’t just make the list as an actor; his directorial debut, a documentary about pianist Seymour Bernstein called Seymour: An Introduction, also has 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
And if you haven’t seen Paddington 2 (2018) yet, we have only one question: What are you waiting for? Not a single critic scored this feel-good film, starring Ben Whishaw, Sally Hawkins, and Hugh Laurie (who has said that it “may be the best film [he’s] ever been in”), below 100 percent. The original Paddington (2014) has a 98 percent score, so you should probably watch that, too.
Since a movie must have at least 40 reviews to enter the club, it’s possible some lesser-known fantastic films just haven’t quite hit that threshold at the time of this writing in 2020. Here are 50 that have, and you can see Rotten Tomatoes’s full list here.
- 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets (2015)
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- The 400 Blows (1959)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
- Afghan Star (2009)
- Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
- Aruitemo Aruitemo (2008)
- Battleship Potemkin (1925)
- Before Sunrise (1995)
- The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- Cool Hand Luke (1967)
- Dawson City: Frozen Time (2017)
- Deliver Us From Evil (2006)
- Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (2011)
- Fireworks Wednesday (2016)
- The Gold Rush (1925)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- Honeyland (2019)
- Ilo Ilo (2014)
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
- The Last Picture Show (1971)
- The Last Train Home (2010)
- Laura (1944)
- Leave No Trace (2018)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- Man on Wire (2008)
- Mary Poppins (1964)
- Mickey and the Bear (2019)
- Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)
- Nostalgia for the Light (2011)
- Only Yesterday (1991)
- Paddington 2 (2018)
- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- Pinocchio (1940)
- Poetry (2011)
- Rear Window (1954)
- Rio Bravo (1959)
- Seymour: An Introduction (2015)
- Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
- The Square (2013)
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2014)
- Tampopo (1985)
- Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
- The Terminator (1984)
- Toy Story (1995)
- Toy Story 2 (1999)
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
- We Were Here (2011)
[h/t Rotten Tomatoes]