Expectations can make all the difference when you walk into a movie theater. For instance, when I went to see Damien Chazelle’s new Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” last month, my expectations were fully informed by the director’s previous movie, “La La Land.” I’m not really a fan of musicals but I was stunned into belief by that one, and it quickly became one of my all-time favorites. I’ll defend it from all haters.

Unfortunately, my fondness led to precipitously lofty expectations for whatever Chazelle’s follow-up would be. I regret to report that “First Man” falls short. On the one hand it’s a marvel of careful observations and precise, studious execution. But like its subject, it’s forbiddingly remote—maybe necessarily so. In order to render his portrait of Armstrong’s extreme reticence, Chazelle built an emotionally stifling framework around his subject and the movie never breaks out of that. It’s a vision of space travel so authentic you’ve never seen it before, but it also never enraptures the audience with the wild unknown of space. I liked it, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t enjoy it.

On the other hand, I walked into “Bad Times at the El Royale,” a thriller from screenwriter and director Drew Goddard, with very few expectations, good or bad. If you’ve seen the trailer you’d probably expect a suspenseful, violent and perhaps quirky B-movie, likely derivative of the early work of Quentin Tarantino. That’s pretty much what it is, but it’s also really well done and immensely fun. I liked it and I enjoyed it.

Here are all eighteen of the movies I watched in October.

• “The Tale of Zatoichi” Irresistibly corny.
• “Tab Hunter Confidential” Lost to history.
• “Clouds of Sils Maria” Odiously pretentious.
• “Prizzi’s Honor” Rudderless.
• “The Tale of Zatoichi Continues” It does!
• “The Parent Trap” Cloying and syrupy.
• “New Tale of Zatôichi” All the sequels blur together at this point.
• “Anatomy of a Murder” Perfectly titled.
• “Manchester by the Sea” Impressively nuanced but unbecomingly gradiose.
• “Disobedience” Mundane.
• “First Man” Accomplished but emotionless.
• “Zatôichi the Fugitive” Not bad, if I recall correctly?
• “In the Fade” Average.
• “The Place Beyond the Pines” Ambitious but creaky.
• “Ghostbusters” The original. Still glorious.
• “A Serious Man” Terrific.
• “Ocean’s Eight” If People Magazine made a movie.
• “Bad Times at the El Royale” Derivative but expert.

If you’re interested, here is what I watched in September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February and January. You can also see my complete list of everything I watched in 2017 and follow along with my film diary over at letterboxd.com.