The Ice Storm (1997)

Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, based on a book by Rick Moody, does for the 70s what The Big Chill and Grand Canyon did for the 80s and 90s - present middleclass America in a moment, here an era of nuclear families contending with post-Vietnam War sexual liberation - and while the movie might have benefitted from a few more laughs as 70s upheaval is paraded in the form of packaging peanuts, Jesus Christ Superstar, est training and key parties, the sombre drama is redeemed by affecting endscenes suggesting the inexorable thaw and moving forwards of Time...and along the way compelling evidence is provided that Tobey Maguire and Elijah Wood are not, in fact, the same person.

★★★☆☆

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Hulk (2003)

In his other films, director Ang Lee successfully melds themes and genres in a way atypical of traditional Hollywood - homosexual romance and life on the land in the American Midwest in Brokeback Mountain, major release wuxia in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - but here, his mix of superhero origin story and drama about the uncommunicative men, delivered in comic-book panels and blobby cgi, is less engaging because Lee forgets to give Bruce Banner anything heroic to do beyond overcoming his personal demons, which I suppose is heroic but it ends up feeling like the movie takes two hours to get to a starting point.

★★☆☆☆

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Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍) (2000)

Some may believe Ang Lee's 2000 film represents a mere Hollywood bastardisation of wuxia but it introduced the genre to Western cinemas, heralded a string of terrific mainstream martial arts cinema releases like Hero and The House of Flying Daggers, and for me was an eye-popping, awe-inspiring introduction to wire fu with a ripping story of a sword thief, an arch criminal and a detective duo, all embroiled in multiple love stories.

★★★★★

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Brokeback Mountain (2005)

This Ang Lee movie is about two cowboys, Jake Gyllenhaal and a mumbling Heath Ledger, whose relaxed nudie, towel-whipping funtimes together at a favourite remote mountain spot are starkly contrasted with their separate and mostly unhappy lives back in society where respectively Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway keep their homes and families.

★★★★☆

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