How should I use `git log --remotes` for a specific branch?

I have a Git repository cloned from a remote repository. In my local repository, I see:

$ git branch --remotes
  origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  origin/master

But when I then do:

$ git log --remotes=origin/master

I get no output.

(git log origin/master does work, but I ultimately also want to use --exclude later, and it's unclear whether positional arguments are allowed to be interspersed with options. I'd prefer to be POSIX-ly correct.)

git log --help indicates:

   --remotes[=<pattern>]
       Pretend as if all the refs in refs/remotes are listed on the
       command line as <commit>. If <pattern> is given, limit
       remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob. If
       pattern lacks ?, *, or [, /* at the end is implied.

which indicates to me that git log --remotes=origin/master is being treated as git log --remotes=origin/master/*, and that will always fail since .git/refs/remotes/origin/master is a file and not a directory.

So taking that into account, doing something like git log --remotes=origin/maste[r] does work, but that seems awkward and weird. Is there a better way?