The best film, television and music of the year, 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’ve picked the best entertainment from a whirlwind 2024 in our annual Top 10 lists. Now we offer the best of the best, the #1 of the year. Our list includes a sprawling epic period drama starring Adrien Brody, a quirky TV drama starring Cate Blanchett, an unlikely Broadway hit about a “crazy” Mary Todd Lincoln, and everyone’s favorite singer, Taylor Swift. Check out our picks and scroll down to find links to all the best entertainment provider rankings.

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Best Film: “The Brutalist”

Everything is monumental in director Brady Corbet’s rich historical epic (now in theaters), from a gorgeous musical score and production design to a year-long narrative that delves deeply into the immigrant experience and shows what happens when the ” “American dream” is simply denied at arm’s length. After surviving the Holocaust, a Hungarian-Jewish architect (Adrien Brody) comes to America and is hired by an industrialist (Guy Pearce) to build a community center while trying to bring his wife (Felicity Jones) here from Europe and to overcome one’s own ego and vices. Like “Conclave,” the drama presents a soulful, insightful ending that adds something meaningful 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 this limited series (streaming on Apple TV+) about secrets, the stories we tell ourselves and the assumptions we make about women. on television. Although the story is full of big ideas and thought-provoking themes, it is intimate and direct, a tale that focuses on the aftermath of a meeting between a young mother (Leila George) and a 19-year-old boy (Louis Partridge) at an Italian restaurant focused beach. Twenty years later, this woman (Cate Blanchett, a star as always) and the boy’s father (Kevin Kline) must reckon with their lives then and now and the complicated feelings of grief, anger and regret. Like Cuarón’s other works, Disclaimer fully immerses you in its world, captivating you even when it’s difficult to watch. Too much television these days is light, simple nonsense that can’t get you to stop scrolling long enough to pay attention. “Disclaimer” will bring your attention. –Kelly Lawler

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Best song: “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart” by Taylor Swift

Swift is always ready to let her fears out – whether romantic or not. But it’s a new vulnerability she exposes in “…Broken Heart,” a Swiftified update of the “The Show Must Go On/Tears of a Clown” philosophy. It’s by turns wickedly ironic (“I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday… every day”), sad (“I collapsed and fell to the floor/every piece of me shattered as the crowd shouted “More!” chanted) and defiant (“You know you’re good when you can do it at all… heartbroken”). The driving dance beat belies her complex emotions, while the “1, 2, 3, 4,” heard softly in the background as if a dance teacher or drummer were counting in the song, is a subtle insider touch. The moral, however, is that the only way to overcome the pain is to reclaim your power, whether a superstar in her glittering prime or a mortal in sweatpants. It’s an art. –Melissa Ruggieri

Best Concert: Electric Light Orchestra

Jeff Lynne, the shaggy-haired visionary who created some of the most flawless fusions of prog-rock-pop-classical music with the Electric Light Orchestra, ended his touring career with an auditory and visual feast. There have been few moments on stage this year as impressive as Lynne, a quiet leader hiding behind glasses and guitar, steering the musical tour de force of “Turn to Stone” as his top band and backup singers carry out the tricky tasks perfectly. But the Over and Out tour was filled with plenty of great moments as it passed through Capital One Arena this fall. “Don’t Bring Me Down” was characterized by lushness, “Do Ya” and the closing “Mr. “Blue Sky” left the audience grinning with an epic burst of optimism. All we can say is thank you, Jeff. –Ruggieri

Best Broadway Show: “Oh, Mary!”

With her short legs and long medleys, crazy First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln has become an unlikely pop culture sensation thanks to the mad genius of playwright/actor Cole Escola. The breezy, 80-minute comedy (through June 28 at the Lyceum Theater) imagines Lincoln as a petulant shut-in who drinks paint thinner and dreams of fame when she’s not arguing with her husband (Conrad Ricamora). Wildly irreverent, strangely touching and unabashedly joyful, “Oh, Mary!” is the rare Broadway performance that surpasses its deafening hype. It’s sensational, like a big scoop of vanilla ice cream falling into your lap. –Patrick Ryan

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The best film, television and music of the year, ranked

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