Ang Lee is a very versatile director, and there isn't a genre of film his eye can't capture. This isn't a hyperbolic statement—a quick look at his filmography shows comedies, romances, action films, historical epics, and slice-of-life dramas, and often those films are considered some of the best examples of those genres. Despite Lee's ability to basically do whatever he wants with a camera, he's at his best when sharing stories hinging on quiet, reserved, painful longing. It's a thread that runs through a lot of his work, and that thread was never as resonant as in Brokeback Mountain, the 2005 Oscar-winning adaptation of Annie Proulx's complicated, taciturn cowboy romance, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger—who (Joker be damned) turns in the best performance of his too-short career. by Bobby Roberts