The best of Ang Lee: Brokeback Mountain

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Sense & Sensibility
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
4. The Ice Storm
5. Ride With the Devil
6. Lust, Caution
Even considering the Academy's long history of getting things hopelessly wrong, the decision to pass over Brokeback Mountain for Crash has lost none of its power to take your breath away. It's a strong contender for best film of the decade.* No matter. Lee's film isn't going anywhere; it feels as solid, weathered and gnarled with pain as an impacted root. I didn't like Crouching Tiger as much as I felt I was supposed to, but the whole list is pretty stunning when you look at it like that. Lee's slow, steady creative growth should shame the boy-wonder burnouts Hollywood seems to attract so much.

*My contenders:- The Wrestler, Knocked Up, United 93, The Incredibles, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mystic River, Catch Me if You Can, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Birth, Mulholland Drive, The Deep End, WALL-E, Milk, The Bourne Supremacy, You Can Count on Me, Lost in Translation, Narc, The Hurt Locker, Zodiac, The Royal Tenenbaums, Borat and Brokeback Mountain. (The one thing I do not want to watch again is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, weirdly). And if we're talking touching-the-hem-of-greatness, I would say it comes down to Brokeback, The Wrestler, Tenenbaums, Knocked Up, United 93 and Birth.