Mike, Larry. I want my props. Cut the check.

Mildly overrated, my ass. You're just not the target audience, Andy. What melodramas and Westerns do you like?

And the target audience would be?

Anyway, howdy, pilgrim.

Melodramas? I like quite a few, actually. This year, for example, both Head-On and Squid and The Whale are in my top 5, with Constant Gardener not too far behind. As for Westerns, I'm a lifelong fan, especially of the ones that Howard Hawks directed. (Red River in particular, which comes off today as just a slightly more closeted precursor to Brokeback. That sound you hear is Duke Wayne spinning in his casket.) And then, of course, there's Johnny Guitar, which is like, the campiest, gayest thing EVER.

Anyway, my (mild) disappointment with Brokeback Mountain stems mostly from a longtime frustration with Ang Lee. As a director, he's incredibly talented, but I always find myself wishing that he'd allow his movies to be ... messier, or less carefully modulated, I guess. (Think Crouching Tiger, which clearly respected its inspirations, but lacked the crazy-assed, backflip-into-a-tree exuberance of the great kungfu epics.) If there's such a thing as being cursed by good taste, he's got it in spades. My problem with Brokeback is that I just never felt convinced about the overwhelming, life-altering passion between the two main characters. I can see why Lee was attracted to the subject matter (as someone pointed out last night, all of his films are about emotional repression), but, personally, the distanced, formalist approach left me stuck on the outside. Plus, you know, Heath Ledger had that weird lockjaw thing.

but the heath ledger lockjaw thing is so, y'know, meta-wayne!

no, i take your point. if you weren't into it, you weren't into it. i actually found the lifelong violent passion thing shockingly convincing. beforehand, i hadn't been sure the leads were up to it.

the target audience: the ladies and the gays. and the academy voters.