2013 in review | The best and worst films

This year was marked with 'more of the same' franchise blockbusters for the most part, though some gems managed to twinkle through the dross. But when it was dark, it was very, very dark indeed. Sadly, some of the most promising international films of this year have yet to reach our shores. But here's a gathering of some of the most notable ones that did... from both sides of the quality spectrum.

THE BEST

1. The Act of Killing

Compiling these kinds of lists can get tortuous. How do you determine what will make it, and on what grounds are you going to leave stuff out? But Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary is there to rivet your attention and slacken your jaw out of place. Challenging Indonesian death squad members to re-enact the brutal political massacres they visited upon alleged communists in '60s as pieces of cinema, Oppenheimer crafts something by turns shocking and achingly beautiful. It's a reminder of art's true function: to activate your senses into full gear and to remind you that being human is an endlessly complex affair. No film in recent memory has ever felt this essential.

2. Prisoners

Sometimes, a foreigner's perspective is just the ticket. It certainly the case with this child-abduction thriller starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall, directed by French-Canadian Denis Villeneuve but set in a woodland suburbia that reeks post-911 Americana. After the law proves ineffective in locating his child's kidnapper, Keller Dover (Jackman) decides to take the law into his own hands. The 'law' in this case involves the torture of a mentally damaged man-child who may be innocent after all. Tense like the best of them but packing a moral quandary that rises above genre - along with a career-best performance from Gyllenhall - this is meaty, substantial entertainment.

3.  Only God Forgives

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn reunited with his acting muse Ryan Gosling - the duo had collaborated on moody and violent hit Drive back in 2011 - to create what is probably the most divisive cinematic experience of the year, thanks to its unashamedly symbolic structure and hyper-violent, lush stylings. But an experience it most definitely is - which is more than can be said for its bland, by-the-numbers counterparts.

4.  Pacific Rim

Giant robots beating the living daylights out of even larger sub-aqueous aliens. What could go wrong? Well, plenty, but luckily fan-favourite Mexican director Guillermo del Toro knows enough of his 'kaiju' lore (i.e. films like Godzilla and their ilk) to lend enough texture and panache to what would otherwise have been a run-of-the-mill box office placeholder. Big, brash and funny, but boasting a beating heart at its centre too, 'Rim' is set to become a cult hit.

5. Captain Phillips

Filmed on Malta's waters, the Tom Hanks starring 'true story' is more than just a thriller about pirates hijacking an American-flagged ship. Though director Paul Greengrass (Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy) takes care of the tension good and proper, the film also - sneakily - reveals itself to be an investigation of how the West treats Africa, and the gulf of injustice that may never be healed. An unexpected tour de force which packs a brilliant performance by Hanks and introduces a promising new talent in newcomer Barkhad Abdi, Phillips was proof that a mainstream blockbuster doesn't have to be dumb.

THE WORST

1. The Great Gatsby

At a (very generous) stretch, you could excuse Adormidera and Silhouette's pitfalls as being the result of a non-existent film industry that doesn't equip its would-be practitioners with the necessary instruction and funds to execute their projects properly. No excuse could be made for the Baz Luhrmann-directed, Leonardo di Caprio-starring adaptation of the beloved F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name. As kitsch as a Carnival float and as subtle as a sledgehammer, this feels like a film made by an emotionally unstable 14-year-old with too much money and time on their hands.

2. Adormidera

Calling 'Malta's First Epic Movie' 'so bad it's good' would just about fall short of describing the experience of watching this cod-medieval piece of swords-and-sorcery. That its production values overstretch its budget is bad enough, but that director Ray Mizzi went ahead and shot the film with such a shoddy script in hand is inexcusable.

3. Silhouette

It's sad that Malta's cinematic produce has the dubious honour of being in pole position on this list, but Mark Doneo's clumsy, info-dump laden, shoddily written and dismally directed Fast and Furious rip-off deserves nothing but the most white-hot opprobrium. But its awfulness still fails to plummet to the depths of its fellow local 'blockbuster'...

4. Man of Steel

Letting Zack Snyder (300, Sucker Punch) direct anything is bound to be a bad idea, because he's clearly a man-child who experiences the world as an MTV music video, so it's hardly surprising that his take on America's most enduring superhero is something of a flop. But 'Man of Steel' - an 'origin' story for Superman, here played by Henry Cavil - doesn't even have the decency to be dumb and simple. It has to be dumb, dark and confusing, cramming in moral quandaries it doesn't even bother to resolve.

5. World War Z

Beset by production troubles and last minute reshoots, this troubled zombie apocalypse thriller starring and produced by Brad Pitt (and partly filmed in Malta) managed to register a box office success against all odds. But the strain is very much apparent: the action set pieces feel clumsy and dated, the story limps awkwardly from one location to another, and the promise of its source material - Max Brooks's satirical novel - is entirely betrayed, as the film is reduced to being just a basic action hero tale. Sequels have been promised. May the gods help us.