‘There was so much left on my bucket list…

…So many different buckets I wanted to own.’

I have recently made a pact with my two siblings. This serious agreement states that before any of us die [particularly me] we’re going to go sky diving. Tandem sky diving. With an instructor. Not alone. We’re not that crazy.

Anyway, this seemingly humorous decision got my brain juicer going. It is my honor to present to you now the fresh-squeezed results of this thinking. Lots of pulp.

Things to do before I’m no longer alive:

1. Go on an adventure. Any sort of spontaneous tom foolery will do. I’m easy to please.

2. Publish something. Even if it’s a letter to the editor of Us Weekly. Once again, I’m easy to please.

3. Audition for The Amazing Race. See number 1.

4. Eat sushi and lobster and caviar and all those foods I’m supposed to have tried by now.

5. Delete my Twitter account. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with Twitter, but I should probably be done with it before I die.

6. Sing karaoke in a public place.

7. See the northern lights. With some hot chocolate.

8. Take a class in something random. Like needlepoint or Icelandic.

9. Attend Sundance. Or, better yet, submit a film to Sundance.

10. Be happy with my life. I’m generally happy at this point. So just don’t screw anything up I guess.

Favorite things in July.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Simply the best film of the series. It took five movies, but the filmmakers have FINALLY made a movie mature and emotional enough to do justice to the books. I’ve been talking about this movie too much. I’m stopping after I post this. Just go see it.

Newton Faulkner Brilliant singer-songwriter from across the pond. Watch this.

Coraline on Blu-ray and DVD One of my favorite movies I’ve seen this year is being released for home media this Tuesday. What’s especially remarkable is that both the DVD and the Blu-ray disc sets come with 4 pairs of 3D glasses. I’m curious to see how the spectacular cinema 3D translates to the small screen, but I imagine it will look stunning on Blu-ray.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins I woke up in the middle of the night last week with an intense craving for lemon poppy seed muffins. They are grossly under-appreciated.

‘Do you have a high sugar intake?’

Words of a TCBY worker who took my parfait order last night.

[My parfait order was, for the record, Oreos pieces, peanut butter yogurt, Reese's cup pieces (not to be confused with Reese's pieces), vanilla yogurt, hot fudge sauce, whipped cream.]

My response: ‘You know, generally speaking… yes.’

Public Enemies.

released 7/1/9 by Universal Pictures
dir. by Michael Mann
grade: B-

In the opening scene of Public Enemies, John Dillinger [Johnny Depp] stages a daring prison break complete with accomplices, getaway cars, and near incessant gunfire. Throughout the film, he and his buddies rob banks with expert technique and snappy dialogue. His many escapes, however close, are genius.

John Dillinger was shot and killed. We all know that. Everyone watching the film knows that. We all know it’s coming. And yet, the filmmakers seem to just accept that and abandon any tension or emotion in Dillinger’s story. There doesn’t seem to be any effort to surprise the audience. The bank robberies aren’t thrilling, but dutiful. The escapes aren’t suspenseful, but dull.

Johnny Depp gives a commendable performance. He delivers Dillinger’s zingers with dead pan humor and puts what little emotion can fit into such a factual movie. As Dillinger’s girlfriend, Billie Frechette, Marion Cotillard is wonderful. In all of her scenes she brings a sense of urgency that the film so desperately needs. For his part, Christian Bale attempts a South Carolinian accent. So he gets an A for effort.

The art direction and costume design are flawless. They more than anything else create the mood of the movie. More disappointing is director Michael Mann’s decision to film with handheld digital cameras. Such methods have been used on movies like Children of Men, but there it added to the story. Here it’s just distracting. Imagine some of the most aesthetically beautiful period films of recent years, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for example. Now imagine them filmed as though they were The Blair Witch Project.

Bryan Burrough first approached HBO in 2002 about a miniseries about John Dillinger. When he found writing a script difficult, he ended up writing the book Public Enemies, a piece of nonfiction. In many ways, I guess Public Enemies is the best film that could be adapted from a nonfiction account of the story. But this painstaking accuracy is the film’s greatest weakness. It produces people and events, but no characters or conflict.

For his adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans, Michael Mann diverted from historical fact to craft a more romanticized story for the film. The result was engaging and thrilling. Perhaps a less factual adaptation would have yielded the same results for Public Enemies.