Taylor Swift's Best-Reviewed Movie On Rotten Tomatoes Is A Big Surprise

It's "The Lorax." Wild, right?

If you forgot Taylor Swift was even in "The Lorax," that's forgivable. The 2012 adaptation of Dr. Seuss' children's book featured a pretty star-studded cast, with Danny DeVito leading the pack as the titular Lorax, a delightful orange creature who serves as the guardian of the Truffula trees. In this particular world, humans are stuck with fake vegetation, making the Truffula tree groves all that much more precious — and when Ted Wiggins (voiced by Zac Efron) discovers both the Lorax and the Truffula trees, he's anxious to impress his crush Audrey (Swift) with a real, live tree.

The really bleak sticking point here, though, is that "The Lorax" is Swift's highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes ... and it only scored 54%. Critics like New York Magazine's David Edelstein made fairly convincing arguments that adapting Dr. Seuss' moral tale about protecting the environment muddled the movie's message, and giving this story the Hollywood treatment didn't quite work. All in all, though, "The Lorax" faded from memory ... and DeVito, Efron, and Swift have all experienced much more success since this forgettable animated film.

Truthfully, Swift's time in front of the camera — music videos aside — hasn't been her most fruitful venture. What other movies have featured Taylor Swift, and how did they fare compared to "The Lorax?"

Let's take a quick look at the highs and lows of Taylor Swift's acting roles, starting back in 2010 with her appearance in the enormous ensemble comedy "Valentine's Day." Directed by Garry Marshall, "Valentine's Day" was one of several attempts to recreate the wildly successful ensemble rom-com "He's Just Not That Into You," but it just couldn't recapture the magic — which isn't really Swift's fault. She shows up as Felicia, the enthusiastic girlfriend of Taylor Lautner's Willy, and the two share a couple of scenes together ... likely because they were a real-life couple at the time.

Swift next appeared in the 2014 adaptation of Lois Lowry's classic children's book "The Giver" as Rosemary, the daughter of a previous Giver who walked away from her fate. This relatively unremarkable young-adult film fared poorly with critics, but Swift wouldn't be deterred. She waited five years before agreeing to perform in Tom Hooper's adaptation of "Cats" in 2019, and to say this film wasn't well received by critics is ... an understatement. Swift plays Bombalurina in the film, adorned in disturbing real-fur technology and huffing catnip like a fiend. Suffice to say, it's weird.

In 2022, Swift joined David O. Russell's movie "Amsterdam," and the movie didn't do very well — but Swift's time on screen is mercifully brief, as she plays a woman who knows too much and is killed almost immediately. Swifties are still a little baffled by this role, though.

Don't worry too much about Taylor Swift, though. She's doing just fine, and now that she's more or less conquered the music industry, she's coming for Hollywood. In 2022, Swift inked a deal to write and direct a feature film with Searchlight Pictures based on the success of her short film "All Too Well," centered around the 10-minute version of her hit track from "Red." At the time, David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield, the presidents of Searchlight Pictures, released a statement about Swift's deal that called her "a once in a generation artist and storyteller. It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey."

Swift went on to win an incredible nine MTV Video Music Awards in 2023 for directing the music video for "Anti-Hero," the lead single from her 2022 album "Midnights." And her biggest cinematic triumph came just about a month later. In case you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware that the professionally filmed version of her record-smashing Eras Tour has performed exceedingly well at the box office — so in some specific circumstances, Swift is as much of a draw in front of the camera as she is behind it. There are ways for her to conquer the movie industry, but clearly, performing in stuff like "Cats" isn't a viable path.