The Films of 2013: Girl Power

1. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)

The standout line of 2013 comes in the extended third act of its standout film, Richard Linklater’s second unexpected sequel to 1995’s Before Sunrise: “I fucked up my entire life because of the way you sing.” This third part is just as intimate, natural and intelligent as its predecessors, but with an added raw frankness concerning just what nine years of routine, stagnation and, well, having kids will do to a romance that was heavy on idealism, and so dependent on that race against the clock as presented in Sunrise and Before Sunset. This is the toughest watch of Linklater’s great trilogy, though the funniest too thanks to how recognisable the central couple’s bitter spats are; it’s also the most rewarding. [Josh Slater-Williams]

2. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)

Visiting her former roommate Frances’s new dwellings – dwellings that change multiple times during Frances Ha, as the eponymous 27-year-old drifts across the five boroughs and beyond – BFF Sophie delivers one of the film’s numerous arch zingers: “This apartment is very… aware of itself,” she sniffs. The same could be said, less derisorily, for Noah Baumbach’s seventh feature, which self-consciously offers familiarity in its themes (everyday embarrassment and the quarter-life crisis) and execution (with a monochrome NYC underscoring the Woody Allen parallels). But in the title role, co-screenwriter Greta Gerwig offers something fresh: not that indie staple of a kooky fantasy to fall for, but a gauchely charming hero to root for, with neuroses balanced by a vibrant joie de vivre. [Chris Buckle]

3. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)

Loosely adapted from a story by Oscar Wilde, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant takes place in the less-than-Wildean surroundings of working-class Yorkshire, a society destroyed by poverty. The setting may resemble so many grim kitchen-sink dramas of the past, but the grace and tenderness with which Barnard handles this material allows it to transcend our expectations of such pictures; there is a stark beauty amid the bleakness here. First-time actors Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas are unforgettable as the tearaway kids illegally stripping copper to secure cash for their struggling families, and Barnard draws us so deeply into their experiences that when tragedy strikes, it lands with an impact that will leave you reeling. [Philip Concannon]

4. Wadjda (Haifaa al-Mansour)

The first thing that needs to be said about Wadjda is that it’s simply a terrific movie. Haifaa al-Mansour’s deceptively slight tale of a 10-year-old Saudi Arabian girl who dreams of owning a bicycle is witty, moving and blessed with a wonderful performance by Waad Mohammed as the title character. But beyond that, the very existence of Wadjda is worth celebrating. Written and directed by a woman in a country where women are barely seen, let alone heard, the film stands as a powerful feminist statement, delivering its damning indictment of Saudi oppression in the playfully rebellious spirit of its young protagonist. Wadjda may be a small film, but it’s a vital landmark in Arabian cinema. [PC]

5. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)

Spring Breakers’ base pleasures are plentiful: it has enough raw material (beer and bongs, tits and ass, gunplay and violence) to delight any self-respecting exploitation-movie junkie. But, like its goofy stoner-dude director, Harmony Korine, it’s much smarter than it looks. Korine stares into the heart of American youth-culture and finds a beautiful hallucinatory nightmare. Four girls, two of them played by former Disney princesses, take to the beaches of Florida for that annual debauched teenage pilgrimage: spring break. Their candy-coloured trash-adventure is both gross and engrossing, like the cinematic equivalent of a Miley Cyrus MTV performance. The film also has, in James Franco’s turn as a gold-toothed gangsta rapper, the comic performance of the year. [Jamie Dunn]

6. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer)

By inviting Indonesian death-squad leaders to recreate in the cinematic style of their choosing the persecution and execution of alleged Communists in the mid 60s, Joshua Oppenheimer has opened a window to the psyche of some of the most despicable people who have ever lived. This is a hugely important work highlighting crimes for which these men have never been held accountable, but Oppenheimer is also concerned with the way we perceive and process evil, and how evil perceives itself. There are no easy answers in this nightmarish, surreal viewing experience, but it is an experience that must be endured. Possibly the purest distillation of warped humanity on film, and certainly the year’s most powerful. [Chris Fyvie]

7. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)

Watching the latest Hollywood sci-fi extravaganzas can often be exhausting. It’s hard to relax when the backbreaking effort is there to see on every stereoscopic pixel. What makes Gravity such a joy, then, is that we can’t see the seams. Its balletic camerawork and long takes feel effortless, its performances are natural and, best of all, its CGI effects are invisible. It took Alfonso Cuarón and his team years to make, but its elegance and apparent spontaneity suggests it was shot in an afternoon. This allows us to empathise fully with Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) as she floats adrift through space, avoiding space shrapnel, exploding space stations and crises of a more existential nature. This is cinema to get lost in. [JD]

8. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)

Incurring criticism from both ends of the political spectrum, director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal’s forensic dramatisation of the decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden proved something of an ideological Rorschach test: torture apologia to some, soft liberal indictment to others. Fittingly, the film’s true character lies somewhere in the murky, contestable hinterland, with more room for debate than either flank of the anti-ZDT pincer allowed, as Jessica Chastain’s hard-nosed CIA agent homes in on her elusive white whale. For all its simplifications and elisions, it’s a marvel of narrative engineering, with years of global turbulence and knotty sleuthing trimmed to fit a thriller format that rivets in the moment but leaves you chewing over its content long after. [CB]

9. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)

Cristian Mungiu’s feature-length follow-up to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days shares genes with its predecessor, and other key films of the supposed Romanian New Wave, in painting a vivid picture of systems failing to aid those they’ve been set up to serve. Here, two young women, friends from their childhood spent in an orphanage, reunite at the Orthodox convent where one now lives. The friend who has come to visit acts increasingly volatile – years of struggle with mental illness having deepened – and the convent’s priest and nuns try to address this with increasingly desperate measures. Mungiu’s dry, slow style, heavy on extended single takes, fuels white-knuckle tension and discomfort, pitch-black comedy, and an ambiguous blend of both realist and symbolic touches. [JS-W]

10. Ain't Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery)

David Lowery’s dustily romantic western steeped in archaic Americana immediately recalls Terrence Malick at his most accessible – no faint praise. Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck exude a seductive stoicism and melancholy as doomed lovers Ruth and Bob, while Ben Foster and Keith Carradine provide their own quietly brooding support in a beautiful, poetic film about longing, fate and the past. Bradford Young’s lush magic hour cinematography and Daniel Hart’s folksy score help create an ethereal atmosphere for these superb performances to breathe; Lowery’s supremely confident pacing and faith in his team suggests there’s a great deal more to come from the literate writer-director. As tender and affecting a drama as there was this year. [CF]

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Film writers' individual top tens

Jamie Dunn
1. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
2. Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)
3. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
4. The World’s End (Edgar Wright)
5. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
6. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski)
7. Bachelorette (Leslye Headland)
8. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
9. Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour)
10. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)

Honourable mentions: Robot & Frank (Jake Schreier), Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón), Me and You (Bernardo Bertolucci), What Richard Did (Leonard Abrahamson), Mister John (Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy)

Re-release of the year: Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)

Stinker of the year: Pieta (Kim Ki-duk)

Becky Bartlett
1. Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon)
2. Mud (Jeff Nichols)
3. Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn)
4. Stoker (Park Chan-wook)
5. The Artist and the Model (Fernando Trueba)
6. Robot & Frank (Jack Schreier)
7. A Hijacking (Tobias Lindholm)
8. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
9. Philomena (Stephen Frears)
10. Pain & Gain (Michael Bay)

Re-release: Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)

Stinkers of the Year: Identity Thief (Seth Gordon); The Smurfs 2 (Raja Gosnell)

Chris Buckle
1. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
2. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous)
3. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
4. No (Pablo Larrain)
5. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
6. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel)
7. I Wish (Hirokazu Koreeda)
8. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
9. The Selfish Giant (Clio Bernard)
10. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)

Honourable mentions: Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen), Wadjda (Haifaa al-Mansour), Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas), White Elephant (Pablo Trapero), Blancanieves (Pablo Berger)

Re-release of the year: My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)

Stinker of the year: Texas Chainsaw 3D (John Luessenhop)

Philip Concannon
1. It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Don Herztfeldt)
2. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous)
3. All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor)
4. Silence (Pat Collins)
5. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
6. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)
7. Gangs of Wasseypur (Anurag Kashyap)
8. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
9. Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl)
10. Wadjda (Haifaa al-Mansour)

Honourable mentions: Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Abdellatif Kechiche), Ernest & Celestine (Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner), Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón), Museum Hours (Jem Cohen), To the Wonder (Terrence Malick)

Re-release of the year: Mahanagar (Satyajit Ray, 1963)

Stinker of the year: Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn)

Nathanael Smith
1. Wadjda (Haifaa al-Mansour)
2. Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski)
3. Philomena (Stephen Frears)
4. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)
5. Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosoda)
6. Les Misérables (Tom Hooper)
7. The Way, Way Back (Nat Faxon, Jim Rash)
8. Blancanieves (Pablo Berger)
9. Caesar Must Die (Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani)
10. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery)

Honourable Mentions: Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach), The World's End (Edgar Wright), A Field In England (Ben Wheatley), Robot & Frank (Jake Schreier), Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)

Re-release of the Year: The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Werner Herzog, 1974)

Stinker of the Year: Pain & Gain (Michael Bay)

Tom Seymour
1. Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Abdellatif Kechiche)
2. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
3. Ain't Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery)
4. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathyrn Bigelow)
5. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)
6. Shell (Scott Graham)
7. Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh)
8. The Gatekeepers (Dror Moreh)
9. Gimme The Loot (Adam Leon)
10. Our Children (Joachim Lafosse)

Honourable mentions: Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas), The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous), Upstream Colour (Shane Carruth), Wadjda (Haifaa al-Mansour), Trance (Danny Boyle)

Re-releases of the year: Aguirre, Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1970); Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

Stinkers of the year: Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino); To The Wonder (Terrence Malick)

Joshua Slater-Williams
1. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
2. I Wish (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
3. Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh)
4. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
5. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
6. The World's End (Edgar Wright)
7. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth)
8. Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
9. Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
10. Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)

Honourable Mentions: Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach), Gimme the Loot (Adam Leon), The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer), Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine), Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel)

Re-release of the year: Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)

Stinker of the year: The Big Wedding (Justin Zackham)

Chris Fyvie
1. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous)
2. Upstream Colour (Shane Carruth)
3. Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
4. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel)
5. Blancanieves (Pablo Berger)
6. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
7. Wadjda (Haifaa al-Mansour)
8. Ain't Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery)
9. Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
10. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)

Honourable Mentions: Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón), Mud (Jeff Nichols), Lords of Salem (Rob Zombie), No (Pablo Larraín), Good Vibrations (Lisa Barros D'Sa)

Re-release of the year: The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)

Stinker of the year: I Give It a Year (Dan Mazer)

John Nugent
1. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
2. The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance)
3. Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Abdellatif Kechiche)
4. Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh)
5. Philomena (Stephen Frears)
6. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
7. A Field In England (Ben Wheatley)
8. Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski)
9. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
10. Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass)

Honourable mentions: The Way, Way Back (Nat Faxon, Jim Rash), Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee), All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor), Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach), The World's End (Edgar Wright)

Re-release of the year: The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)

Stinker of the year: Red Dawn (Dan Bradley)

Simon Bland
1. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
2. The Way, Way Back (Nat Faxon, Jim Rash)
3. Alpha Papa (Declan Lowney)
4. Room 237 (Rodney Ascher)
5. A Field In England (Ben Wheatley)
6. Maniac (Franck Khalfoun)
7. This Is the End (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg)
8. The Kings of Summer (Jordan Vogt-Roberts)
9. V/H/S/2 (Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Timo Tjahjanto, Eduardo Sánchez, Gregg Hale, Gareth Evans, Jason Eisner)
10. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)