I get the sense there are two things Damien Chazelle hoped to accomplish with First Man.

A Star Is Born is a perfectly acceptable harvesting of previously tilled territory, one that highlights Bradley Cooper’s impressive dramatic range and Lady Gaga’s dynamic vocals without bringing anything particularly exciting or memorable to the table, save one pop song that will undoubtedly go down as a “banger” that “slaps.”

Eli and Charlie Sisters (John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix, respectively) announce themselves early on in The Sisters Brothers. The camera focused on a stretch of dark prairie land, we hear them announce themselves (“We’re the Sisters Brothers!”) before demanding that those holed up inside toss out whoever it is they’re hiding unless they want violence to commence. Violence, of course, commences, and the brothers Sisters kill everyone inside.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the adaptation of a beloved children’s book, is directed by Eli Roth. The same Eli Roth who made the Hostel movies, which practically defined the term “torture porn,” as well as Cabin Fever and the recent Death Wish reboot and the cannibalism-oriented eco-horror film The Green Inferno. The same Eli Roth who played the baseball-bat-wielding Bear Jew in Inglourious Basterds and directed Knock Knock, a film in which Keanu Reeves is first seduced and then tortured by a pair of naughty school girls.