Citizen Kane 's flop week continues as Rotten Tomatoes score drops below 100 percent
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Citizen Kane? A classic? In this climate? Not if Rotten Tomatoes has anything to do with it!
All joking aside, the iconic, groundbreaking, legendary Orson Welles classic — the creation of which served as the inspiration for David Fincher's Netflix hit Mank — recently dropped its 100 percent "fresh" rating on the reviews aggregator thanks to an 80-year-old movie review.
Rotten Tomatoes' collection of 116 critical reactions to the movie (often cited as the best film of all time) now includes a single disgruntled reaction from a vintage edition of the Chicago Tribune dated May 7, 1941.
Everett Collection 'Citizen Kane' drops below 100% for its Rotten Tomatoes score.
Per a scan of the article that Rotten Tomatoes links to, writer "Mae Tinee" took issue with the film's "sacrifice of simplicity to eccentricity" that robbed the project of "distinction and general entertainment value. The review also says the film's critically lauded, shadowy aesthetic "gives one the creeps." Translated for today's readers: "You're a flop, sweetie."
Though the review was added to Rotten Tomatoes back in March, it has sprung into the cultural conversation in the aftermath of Sunday's Oscars telecast, during which Fincher's Mank won two Academy Awards, for its production design and cinematography — double the amount that Citizen Kane won at the 1942 ceremony. Oddly enough, Kane's Oscar for Best Original Screenplay went to Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, the latter of whom Gary Oldman portrays as the central character in Mank.
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