The laughs belie the palpable anxieties bubbling beneath the aging surfaces, but the pleasure is in the interplay of ego management and epiphany. Plus food.

A Taxi Driver
The Korean penchant for tonal shift can be off putting to the unfamiliar, but in this instance sudden jumps from buddy spy comedy, to street level war documentary, to an extended sequence of a family dinner sandwiched between bouts of violence, complements the whirlwind adventure of a opportunistic taxi driver who becomes inadvertently embroiled in historical revolution. Corrals the bouncy Korean energy in a fine balancing act of weightiness and light.

The Florida Project
Magical and heartwrenching and effortlessly natural. I also enjoyed Sean Baker's 2015 Tangerine.

Girls Trip
Friendship pee says it all.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi 

Out of the big sci-fi/superhero epics of the year, Star Wars fell on the top of the heap through the strength of...

• the palpable tension between Rey and our broody could-have-been-Anakin, Kylo (you had me at "You need a teacher...", and then again at highpants) 
• the throne room fight scene (and most any action sequence) 
• the cheeky inversions of the Star Wars theology (teasing a destabilizing force upheaval, but ultimately retreating into a safe space, signaling a submission to Abrams final act which may or not play out) 
• a second installment so full as to be a trilogy in and of itself (and not in a bad way) 

In comparison, Blade Runner 2045, Valerian, and Wonder Woman, had more obvious faults but were just as enjoyable.

• Blade Runner's entertaining though shallow recursive theme and moody existentialism was undercut by an annoying villain. 
• Weak characters and heavy plotting weighed down the visual feast of Valerian.
• The slapstick humor and heart of Wonder Woman got a little lost in the sloggish DC bombast. 

  Paddington 2
The most insouciant anti-Brexit film of the year, with wonderful performances all 'round and a joy which can only be inspired by being nice and an unperturbable love of marmalade.

And now that TV shows are really just longer movies, I can add these to my favorites for the year... 

• The Deuce ("...is a show about Times Square in the early '70s, when New York was so seedy there were two James Francos." -- Seth Myers, pre-scandal commentary. More salient to the quality of the show is Gyllenhaal's combative and despairing scene with Method Man.) 
• Star Trek: Discovery (with a number of hefty caveats mostly relating to shoddy writing) 
• Feud (all these talented women in complicated roles for women about women) 
• Glow (fun, simple, girl power fare) 
• Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (another female-centric story, with a light insightful touch on unbecoming man-nerisms, so charming we blazed through all the episodes) 
• Taboo (the full Hardy - grunty, sweaty, caper-y, man stuff)