Illustration: Daniel Jarman
Best movies of 2024
The year’s most powerful films were thrilling affirmations of film as a global medium.
Film critic Justin Chang explains the thinking behind this year’s best movies list. “With one exception, I have paired the titles. I am a firm believer that the films speak to each other as deeply as the films have spoken to me,” he wrote. There is. Read the list »
Additionally, Richard Brody’s list includes only a few of the same films, suggesting that the art of film is expanding.
Other works chosen by critics
Suggestions for watching, listening and reading.
Illustration: Daniel Jarman
“I lost interest in podcasts. I lost interest in silence. There were too many extraordinary works out there,” Amanda Petrusich writes in her roundup of the year’s best albums.
If you haven’t lost your interest in podcasts yet, Sarah Larson’s list of popular listens is for you, with topics ranging from investigating Elon Musk to our relationship with death.
Taylor Swift’s comeback, an unexpected internet rap collaboration, and an absurd sample of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Carey Battan talks about the best songs of the year.
Tom Ripley is middle-aged and murderous. Mary Todd Lincoln, drunk and stage-drunk; These two unlikely singers at the Grammys were the artists who broke through the noise of this difficult and turbulent year. Michael Schulman catalogs the year’s best performances.
“2024 was a very bad year for television,” Inkoo Kang wrote. “I wondered if there would be enough entries for a traditional top 10 list until some of the great late candidates came along.” But she did it anyway.
Can the art of opera escape the stifling grip of its grand past?Judging by the contemporary works that have hit the stage this year, Alex Ross has found plenty of reason for hope.
While Broadway has bounced back this year, off-Broadway nonprofits continue to struggle. Helen Shaw explores the reasons for the difference.
A year of great reading: 12 essential nonfiction books and 12 books of fiction and poetry.
A year of news
How we understood that moment.
Illustration: Timo Lenzen
Fraudulent personal information, Kanye West, RFK, Jr., the death of a healthcare CEO, and more this year’s most read stories.
As the year draws to a close, Iran is in many ways weaker than it has been in nearly half a century. Robin Wright talks about the remarkable collapse of state influence.
