The Master (2012)

Following World War II, a young drifter (Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself as right hand man to a cult leader (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) intent on purging him of his demons.

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Do not read if you have not seen the movie. There be spoilers ahead!

What I love most about film is the way it can integrate the other arts into itself. Acting, photography, dance architecture, etc. all come together and create something new through juxtaposition. My favorite such marriage is that of music and image. In the hands of the right filmmaker, music can be used to enhance and clarify both theme and narrative. For example, if you go exclusively by the closing images of Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, it is clear that Freddy's struggle for sanity/civilization is a losing battle. But only by placing the Helen Forrest song "Changing Partners" over the intensely maternal image of Quell clinging to a sand-woman (destined to be washed away with the tide) does the true nature of Freddy's neurosis finally come into sharp focus. It's one of those magical little moments that only we the audience get to be in on, like the fate of the Ark in Raiders and the true meaning of Charles Foster Kane's last words.

So I'll keep changing partners till your in my arms, and then oh my darling, I will never change partners again...