I Rob Banks.

Since The Oscars are nearly upon us I think it's about time I put together a "Best of 2009" list and actually try and finish it before Oscar night. Granted, I still haven't been able to see a number of movies from last year that I was anticipating. The Informant!, Antichrist, Mother, The White Ribbon, and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans are just a few that have eluded me for some time. So I will have to carry on without them and post a top ten consisting of the other 40 or so movies I've seen from last year. So without further delay I'll kick things off with number ten:

10. Public Enemies (2009)

First off, I've never been a huge fan of Michael Mann. Though I do own and enjoy a number of his movies he's never been among my most beloved filmmakers. Much like Christopher Nolan, Mann is a director who's work I can admire but I have never been able to really connect with. I wouldn't deny that they're both talented craftsmen but I've always felt the cold shoulder from their pictures. With Mann it's been like that up until Public Enemies (well not entirely, The Insider (1999) is the main other movie from Mann that I found pretty moving but Public Enemies is perhaps my favorite of his I've seen so far).

Johnny Depp plays the legendary John Dillinger in probably one of the most overlooked performances of the year, or perhaps forgotten is a better way to describe it. Depp's charisma works wonders as Dillinger, a fascinating individual infatuated with his own criminal celebrity. Perhaps my favorite scene in the film is when Dillinger is being escorted in the back of a police cab and he cracks a smile as he sees bystanders on either side of the car snapping pictures and giving him their undivided attention. The way the movie follows Dillinger, scratching away at the surface to explore how he lives life in the moment, always on a razor's edge, while still leaving the man as mysterious as he was to begin with is something I find to be a thing of beauty and dare I say, almost poetic. This doesn't strike me as a standard biopic, it's a character piece for sure but it spends its time on the nature of the individual rather than historical accuracy of the time, which is why I can let it off the hook for its numerous inconsistencies with the occurrence of actual events.

Speaking of things of beauty I must go on to mention the digital filming. Perhaps it doesn't make it look as realistic of a depiction of the era as one might hope from most period films but like the way it handles Dillinger's character I felt this also added to the poetic feel of the picture. Sure it takes place in the 1930s but the look of the film gives it a timeless appeal and reinforces the romantic notions behind the attraction of Dillinger's life of crime which awarded him wealth, excitement, and fame.

In the end Dillinger lived his life at his own pace and was a man who lived by his own decisions, which is truly rare. It's not hard to realize that this would ultimately lead to fueling his life as an outlaw. It also isn't hard to realize how quickly this would burn out. I can't think of a better way to describe Dillinger's highly combustible way of living than one of the famous lines from the movie Blade Runner (1982), "The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long."