Untitled-in-sydney

Ang Lee does angst very well. Ok, so the Incredible Hulk came in woefully under-par in my book (and quite a few others too), but by all accounts, that was a bit of an aberration. Both Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm were pretty decent flicks.

Now Brokeback Mountain trots into view from over the mountain expanses, and pretty damn good it was too. Naturally enough, in a blokey culture like Australia, much has been made about the "gay cowboy film", and yes, it was definitely that by some measures.

One short, dark, night-time sex scene within about 25 minutes of the film beginning, and most of "that" was pushsed aside to leave a movie more about tenderness and the longing for something you can't have.

This is a movie that's never going to make to many folks' "feel good list", but one that I enjoyed far more than I expected (courtesy of my father,I rather believe that cowboy movies should have Indian's and raiding parties (or corrupt cattle barons and raiding parties) and stage coaches and whatnot).

It's been nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, 2 counts of Best Supporting Actor, Music, Screenplay and Cinematography. If it doesn't get at least some of them, I'd be very surprised.