ABSTRACT
Music's transformative power manifests itself through various means whether that be intertextual dependency, sensory extremes and technological wonder, embodied engagement, shared listening, or stylistic associations. In many cases, music operates within the tension between irony and sincerity as a sign of resistance against the grain of dissatisfaction and brokenness. Musical reflexivity exposes these tensions in quirky and post-ironic films especially, for example, through the children's intertextual dependency in Moonrise Kingdom, the musical ambivalence. Musical reflexivity often points—with a compelling affective intensity and precision unique to music—beyond the film and the music itself to our shared yearning for personal, collective, and spiritual fulfillment. Yet if musical reflexivity is often employed by filmmakers as an efficient and effective way of addressing broader human desires, it also promotes a fuller awareness of music itself and music's capacity to stir and express those desires.
