Following its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, Mona Fastvold’s period piece biopic The Testament of Ann Lee, starring Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried, has won a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is a speculative depiction of the life of Ann Lee, a religious leader and founder of the 18th-century Shakers religious sect.
The Testament of Ann Lee is the anticipated return of filmmaking duo Fastvold and her partner Brady Corbet. Fastvold and Corbet wrote Ann Lee together, like they previously did with 2024’s The Brutalist, which was directed by Corbert and went on to win three Academy Awards. Using some real Shakers music, Ann Lee is a kind of unique movie musical.
Thus, it features music composed by the Oscar-winning Daniel Blumberg and choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall. Also starring Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Abbott, The Testament of Ann Lee currently holds a 100% critics’ approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, aggregated from 11 reviews.
Critics have largely positive things to say about Ann Lee‘s bold genre-bending and execution. Damon Wise of ᴅᴇᴀᴅline Hollywood Daily, for instance, says: “Though she’s clearly some kind of fruitcake, Ann has optimism, compᴀssion and life, which Fastvold reveals in a series of mesmerizing musical numbers taken from real Shaker scriptures.“
On the other hand, David Ehrlich of IndieWire suggests that this is even a case for more movies like this: “In a sense, The Testament of Ann Lee is a celebration of — and then in its less rhapsodic second half, a plea for — the conditions required to make a movie like The Testament of Ann Lee.”
What These Reviews Mean For The Testament Of Ann Lee
As a hopeful awards season contender, The Testament of Ann Lee is off to a great start. Following The Brutalist being one of the most acclaimed films of last year, Fastvold and Corbet are well-established as A-list filmmakers, and it seems like they are primed to take on the Oscars once again. Notably, Robbie Collin of Daily Telegraph (UK) says:
Comparisons to The Brutalist are inevitable… The free-range majesty and fine-grained, muddy-fingernailed detail of Fastvold’s film, though, is entirely its own thing: like Ann, I was left wobbly and breathless by its grandeur and nerve.
So far, Ann Lee‘s main compeтιтors at Venice haven’t been able to match it: The Smashing Machine made a splash, but it didn’t achieve the coveted perfect score, while Julia Roberts’ After the Hunt debuted with an underwhelming score. Though some critics appear confused by it, they still praise Ann Lee, which will allow it to go far.
Our Take On The Testament Of Ann Lee’s RT Score
While nothing is set in stone yet for Ann Lee — only 11 people have gotten to review it — it has garnered a lot of attention that will build anticipation for it at additional film festivals and a theatrical release. How general audiences react to this movie will determine what it ultimately becomes in the zeitgeist rather than just its critical status.
Given its musical premise, it could be a popular modern classic. 2025 also seems to be a great year for movies that experiment with genre. While I would still say that the historical semi-musical action horror Sinners has a better sH๏τ at Best Picture than The Testament of Ann Lee, it’s wonderful to see the industry being receptive to different projects.
