Master of None, Season Two (Aziz Ansari, et. al., 2017): 3.5/5
A charming tone goes a long way.

The Blackcoat's Daughter (Oz Perkins, 2015): 3/5
A glacial and ultra-controlled meditation on horror motifs. See The House of the Devil, The Witch, I Am the Pretty Thing Who Lives in the House and, well, The Shining first—and see if you feel like you need more.

Song To Song (Terrence Malick, 2017): 2/5
Diminishing returns, The Movie.

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017): 2/5
Screeches from the gate and loses momentum early. Probably my favorite movie by Wright.

Silicon Valley, Seasons 1-4 (Mike Judge, et. al, 2014-2017): 4/5
Expertly plotted to ensure maximum binge-itude. Consistently amusing, with the humor flowing straight from the well-drawn characters. 

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992): 3.5/5
Douglas Sirk, Kenneth Anger, and Barbara Eden walk into an abattoir....

The Mummy (Alex Kurtzman, 2017): 2.5/5
Not good, but at least it was watchable and short. Why did everyone decide this movie was safe to pan? Maybe because it (like the similarly received Dark Tower) was nakedly presented as a franchise-opener? People just looooove to pretend they hate franchises.

Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017): 3/5
I certainly enjoyed drooling over a beautiful woman kicking ass in a metal mini (and I ask myself why bros would generally prefer to watch big hunky men instead. Hmmm...), but is this really feminist? The movie boldly asserts that we all should be judged not by our gender but by how well we can knee someone in the face.

Logan (James Mangold, 2017): 1.5/5
Mangold remakes Cop Land, sort of, wherein an aging star makes one last bid at relevance. On-the-nose references to Shane abound. Surprisingly grim, gory, humorless, and unpleasant.

*Dunkirk [IMAX 70mm film] (Christopher Nolan, 2017): 3.5/5
Solemn spectacle.  106 minutes of stiff upper lips overwhelmed by cinematic technique, on a screen the size of an apartment building.  I admired the experience of it, but I can't say I much enjoyed it.  And I found myself not thinking about it much afterward; perhaps that's the consequence of its lack of narrative cohesion?

Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017): 4/5
Says more about being black in America than a dozen well-intentioned Oscar-bait films.  Love its understated horror/comedy.  Bunuel, Polanski... Peele?  

Okja (Bong Joon-ho, 2017): 2/5
So cartoonish you'd think it was for kids, but then they keep dropping the F-bombs...

Feud: Bette and Joan (Ryan Murphy, 2017): 5/5
Transcends camp into real feeling.  Mamacita = best Teutonic servant since Max von Mayerling.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, rw (Robert Aldrich, 1962): 3.5/5
Much improved by knowing its intimate production history.

The Last Tycoon, season 1 (Billy Ray, 2017): 2/5
Embalmed.  What's worse, portrays Monroe Stahr as more pretty boy than boy genius.

Ozark, season 1 (Bill Dubuque, 2017): 3/5
Breaking Bad lite, but entertaining.

Friends From College, season 1 (Nicholas Stoller & Francesca Delbanco, 2017): 3.5/5
Too often ridiculous and over the top, with a carefully selected soundtrack of 90s indie nostalgia... so why was I laughing so much?  A: good comedic actors in a classic screwball love triangle.

Demon, rw (Marcin Wrona, 2016): 4/5
Another European family party film in the grand guignol tradition of The Celebration and Melancholia.  A wedding is held in a Polish country village where Jews disappeared during the war.  The groom is an outsider.  What could go wrong?

American Anarchist (Charlie Siskel, 2016): 3/5
Profile of the surprisingly sympathetic yet confounding author of The Anarchist's Cookbook (a book that testifies to the efficacy of good research--the author never made a bomb in his life; he just looked it up at the library).

I Called Him Morgan (Kasper Collin, 2014): 4/5
I didn't much know or care about trumpeter Lee Morgan, but Collin's expressive use of 16mm film pulled me in.  The five minutes detailing Morgan's death (shot by his wife in a club during a NYC blizzard) are sublime.