With 2024 coming to a close, Tribune writers, columnists and critics took a look back at their favorite moments of the year, from the stage performances that captivated us to the books that kept us turning the page and much more.
Best TV of 2024
Overall, 2024 offered a modestly better lineup than usual, but it might not have felt that way. Too often the good stuff got drowned out by Hollywood’s pointless and endless pursuit of rebooting intellectual property (no thank you, Apple’s “Presumed Innocent”) and tendency to stretch a perfectly fine two-hour movie premise into a saggy multi-part series (“Presumed Innocent” again!).
Maybe it just felt like we were having more fun this year, with Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple” (Nicole Kidman leading a traditional manor house mystery reinterpreted with an American sensibility) and Hulu’s “Rivals” (the horniest show of 2024, delivered with a wink in the English countryside).
Best movies of 2024
The best films this year followed familiar character dynamics into fresh territory.
Some were more visually distinctive than others; all made eloquent cases for how, and where, their stories unfolded. “All We Imagine as Light,” recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center, works like a poem, or a sustained exhalation of breath, in its simply designed narrative of three Mumbai hospital workers. Fluid, subtly political, filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s achievement is very nearly perfect.
>> Read Michael Phillips’ full list
Best books of 2024
When our critic thinks back on what he read this year, on what stuck, and stuck, refusing to unstick, the common denominator was his surprise at his own surprise. A fresh take! A subject he’s assumed he knew! An antidote to heard-it-all-before-ism, that cynicism we develop from having access to every story ever told, every opinion ever voiced and every song ever sung, behind a black mirror in your pocket.
Surely you have your own? Social media is awash in lists of reads from last month, last week, last year, driven by the same shock of recognition that there’s plenty new under the sun.
>> Read Christopher Borrelli’s full list
Best live music shows of 2024
Chicago, there’s a reason you’re on the docket for every tour that winds through America. You show up. Time and again. Prolonging a trend that began once the fog of the pandemic lifted, concerts large and small keep drawing capacity crowds.
No Taylor Swift? No Boss? No Beyoncé? No problem. Did every date justify the costs of admission? Heck, no. But a fair number hit the right notes.
>> Read Bob Gendron’s full list
Best theater of 2024
Two grand pianos enhanced “Into the Woods.” Writers Theatre surrounded its audience with harmonies. Director John Tiffany came to town to make sure his touring “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” was stellar. Michael Shannon returned to the Chicago stage. The Royal Shakespeare Company enchanted on their Chicago return. Laurie Metcalf came back. Prestidigitation thrived all over town. Paramount Theatre built an entire Sun Studios replica for its immersive “Million Dollar Quartet.” And Steppenwolf Theatre returned to form; four of our Top 10 shows of the year were staged within its walls.
>> Read Chris Jones’ full list
Best classical music, jazz and more of 2024
You know that Maya Angelou quote, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”?
You may not remember every turn of musical phrase, or every number on the setlist. But your do remember how they made me feel: weightless, soothed, exhilarated, connected, whole.
>> Read Hannah Edgar’s full list
Best dance of 2024
With the Joffrey Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago having their best year in recent memory, several midsize companies are meeting the moment, taking risks and betting on themselves by indulging in larger-than-ever venues and productions.
It may seem like the pandemic is in the rearview, but many arts organizations are still scrambling to keep their heads above water. At the risk of making a trite “from adversity comes strength” metaphor, Chicago dance delivered, seeming to possess a renewed commitment to audiences by delivering on some of their best performances this decade.
>> Read Lauren Warnecke’s full list
