Best & Worst of 2014 movies
Best
THE LUNCHBOX
Inspired by the feat of logistical wonder that is the daily lunch delivery in Mumbai, writer-director Ritesh Batra cooks up a moving tale of urban loneliness and human connection.
It is liberally sauced with delicious curries and spiced with lovely performances from Irrfan Khan as a curmudgeonly widower and Nimrat Kaur as a housewife slowly discovering her own voice.
There are moments of drama, comedy and tragedy and the first-time feature director balances all the flavours as deftly as a dabbawalla wending through Mumbai traffic.

BEYOND BEAUTY: TAIWAN FROM ABOVE
From above looking down, one sees beauty as well as a landscape ravaged by rampant, thoughtless development in the name of progress and economic growth.
The Golden Horse Award winner for Best Documentary shows cinemagoers both stunning natural vistas as well as scarred earth and polluted waterways, all set to a stirring score by Singapore composer Ricky Ho.
What comes through is film-maker Chi Po-lin’s love of the land and while he does not harangue, it is also clear that something has to change before more mountains come tumbling down.

GRAND PIANO and BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES
Two of the most purely entertaining flicks of the year could not be more different.
Spanish director Eugenio Mira goes for high drama and taut suspense in his virtuoso performance of Grand Piano.
Elijah Wood is a concert pianist who has to get a devilishly difficult piece right under threat of death and there are plenty of intriguing questions raised along the way. The score by Victor Reyes works in tandem with what is unfolding as it teases and thrills.
Brotherhood Of Blades is the Mandarin wuxia version of A Simple Plan (1998) – what seems like a good idea turns into a nightmare that will not end.
An easy windfall ends up exacting a terribly high price on Ming dynasty palace assassin Shen Lian (Chang Chen) and his sworn brothers.
Director Lu Yang keeps cinemagoers on tenterhooks over their fates and Lin Sang dazzles with the sizzling swordfights.

Worst
OUTCAST
In bizarro land, wracked with guilt Crusader Jacob (Hayden Christensen) has to chaperone a China princess and her heir-to-the-throne younger brother to safety.
Christensen’s fauxhawk always looks sharp even though they are on the run and Nicolas Cage shows up – blind in one eye, brandishing a snake in one fist and lurching about drunk and angry. It seems like an apt response to getting cast in this turkey.
(ST)