"If I never meet you in this life, let me feel the lack."

Fifth viewing on the big screen alone, added to a couple more on home video, and this hasn't lost a single bit of its power. If anything, when stacked up next to KNIGHT OF CUPS, it's some kind of alien wonder now. As much as I adore BADLANDS, there's just nothing that ever came before this -- by Malick or anyone -- that was anything like this…

The following essay was published Feb 9, 2012, during a Blogathon hosted by the wonderful critic Bilge Ebiri.

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“I'm a vulgar man. But I assure you, my music is not.” – W.A. Mozart

What do you remember about Antonio Salieri? Chances are, it's not his music – it's his words. And that goes not only for the real Salieri, but for the Salieri character in Milos Forman's magnificent 1984 film Amadeus (titled, of course, after Mozart's middle name, not…

Probably the best sound design of Hitchcock's career. I love the Hermann scores as much as anyone, but Hitch's insistence upon silence almost all the way throughout proves horrifying and genius. None of the bird attacks are accompanied with the shrieking violins or booming cellos we'd gotten from PSYCHO; just straight-up silence. So the audio work of the bird shrieks themselves stands out more - hardly anyone is yelling or cursing or shouting orders, they're just flailing about while all…