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The year’s best movie, TV and music, ranked
Looking for the best of the best?
USA TODAY’s critics have you covered. From movies and TV shows to concerts and Broadway, we picked the best in entertainment from a whirlwind 2024 in our annual top 10 lists. Now we’re offering the cream of the crop, the No. 1’s of the year. Our list includes a sprawling epic historical drama starring Adrien Brody, a twisty TV drama starring Cate Blanchett, an improbable Broadway hit about a “crazed” Mary Todd Lincoln and everybody’s favorite singer, Taylor Swift. Catch up with our picks, and scroll down to find links to all the rankings of the best in entertainment.
So dig in during your holiday break.
Best movie: ‘The Brutalist’
Everything is monumental in director Brady Corbet’s rich historical epic (now in theaters), from a gorgeous music score and production design to a yearslong narrative that takes a hard look at the immigrant experience and what happens when the “American dream” is held just out of arm’s length. After surviving the Holocaust, a Hungarian Jewish architect (Adrien Brody) comes to America and is commissioned by an industrialist (Guy Pearce) to build a community center, while trying to bring his wife (Felicity Jones) over from Europe and weathering his own ego and vices. Like “Conclave,” the drama presents a soulful, revealing ending that adds something significant to our cultural conversation. –Brian Truitt
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Best TV show: ‘Disclaimer’
“Gravity” and “Roma” director Alfonso Cuarón brings his Oscar-winning talents to TV for this limited series (streaming on Apple TV+) about secrets, the stories we tell ourselves and the assumptions we make about women. Although loaded with big ideas and thought-provoking themes, the story is intimate and direct, a narrative focused on the consequences of a meeting between a young mother (Leila George) and a 19-year-old boy (Louis Partridge) on an Italian beach. Twenty years later, that woman (Cate Blanchett, as always a star) and the boy’s father (Kevin Kline) must reckon with their lives then and now, and the complicated emotions of grief, rage and regret. Like Cuarón’s other work, “Disclaimer” immerses you fully in its world, locking you in even when it’s hard to watch. Too much TV in our current era is lightweight, simplistic fluff that can’t make you stop scrolling long enough to pay attention. “Disclaimer” will make you pay attention. –Kelly Lawler
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Best song: ‘I Can Do It with A Broken Heart,’ Taylor Swift
Swift is always willing to let her angst – romantic or otherwise – spill out. But it’s a new vulnerability she exposes in “… Broken Heart,” a Swiftified update of “the show must go on/tears of a clown” philosophy. She’s at turns wickedly wry (“I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday … every day”), sad (“Breaking down I hit the floor/all the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting “More”) and defiant (“You know you’re good when you can even do it … with a broken heart”). The propulsive dance beat belies her layers of emotion, while the “1, 2, 3, 4” heard faintly in the background, like a dance instructor or drummer counting in the song, is a subtle insider touch. The moral, though, is that whether a superstar in her glittering prime or a mortal in sweatpants, the only way to overcome the hurt is to reclaim your power. It’s an art. –Melissa Ruggieri
Best concert: Electric Light Orchestra
Jeff Lynne, the shaggy-haired visionary who crafted some of the most immaculate fusions of prog-rock-pop-classical music with Electric Light Orchestra, wrapped his touring career with an auditory and visual feast. There were few moments as impressive on a stage this year as Lynne, a quiet leader hidden behind glasses and his guitar, steering the musical tour-de-force that is “Turn to Stone,” his ace band and backup singers flawlessly executing the tricky song. But the Over and Out tour was stocked with numerous moments of grandeur when it passed through Capital One Arena this fall. Lushness ruled “Don’t Bring Me Down,” happiness was threaded through “Do Ya” and the closing “Mr. Blue Sky” left the crowd grinning through an epic bop of optimism. All we can say is thanks, Jeff. –Ruggieri
Best Broadway show: ‘Oh, Mary!’
With her short legs and long medleys, crazed first lady Mary Todd Lincoln has become an improbable pop culture sensation, thanks to the deranged genius of playwright/actor Cole Escola. The airtight, 80-minute comedy (now through June 28 at the Lyceum Theatre) imagines Lincoln as a petulant shut-in who chugs paint thinner and dreams of stardom when she’s not quarreling with her closet case husband (Conrad Ricamora). Wildly irreverent, oddly touching and unabashedly gay, “Oh, Mary!” is the rare Broadway outing to exceed its deafening hype. Like a big scoop of vanilla ice cream that falls into your lap, it’s sensational. –Patrick Ryan
As we wrap up another year, it’s time to look back on the best of the best in the world of entertainment. From blockbuster movies to binge-worthy TV shows and chart-topping music, 2021 has been a year filled with incredible releases.
Here’s a ranking of the year’s best in movies, TV, and music:
Movies:
1. Dune
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home
3. The Power of the Dog
4. No Time to Die
5. A Quiet Place Part II
TV Shows:
1. Squid Game
2. Ted Lasso (Season 2)
3. Succession (Season 3)
4. The Crown (Season 5)
5. The Mandalorian (Season 2)
Music:
1. Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR
2. Adele – 30
3. Taylor Swift – Red (Taylor’s Version)
4. Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
5. Doja Cat – Planet Her
These are just a few of the standout releases from 2021, but there were so many more that captivated audiences and left a lasting impact. What were your favorites from this year? Let us know in the comments below!
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best movies 2021, top TV shows, best music albums, ranking of entertainment in 2021, top media of the year
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