A Grand total of 633 movies opened this year – making 2013 one of the most prolific years in film.

It wasn’t just quantity though, as a lot of the films that came out this years were real bangers. ‘Gravity’ stunned audiences with its audio-visual display and ‘Long Walk To Freedom’ will certainly prove to be one of those films you have to see before you die.

But then, of course, there are those films – cast in the shadow of the blockbusters – that don’t get to shine. Here is a list of them:

1. ‘The Counselor’

Critics unjustly shred this pulpy, lurid, black-hearted thriller to pieces. Directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by novelist Cormac McCarthy, the film stars Michael Fassbender as “The Counselor”—a lawyer who’s lured into the world of drug trafficking through his charismatic client, Reiner (Javier Bardem). It opens with Fassbender going down on his girlfriend, played by Penelope Cruz, and things only get crazier when Reiner’s fiery, Ferrari-humping boo, Malkina (Cameron Diaz), enters the picture.

2. ‘Upstream Colour‘

One day, an art dealer named Kris (the wonderful Amy Seimetz) is abducted by a hipster-botanist and force-fed maggots via oxygen mask. When she comes to, she realizes she’s been fleeced for everything she owns. This kicks off a wild journey that involves pig-to-man transference, a bizarre courtship by another lobotomized man (Carruth), and scene after scene of hauntingly poetic imagery, often with no dialogue. There’s a reason why Steven Soderbergh called Carruth “the illegitimate offspring of David Lynch and James Cameron.

3. ‘Shadow Dancer‘

Directed by Academy Award-winning documentarian James March (Man on Wire), this slow-burning thriller is set in 1993 Belfast at the height of the Troubles. Colette McVeigh (Andrea Riseborough) is captured after a failed terrorist attack in London, and forced to inform on her family of IRA members. Mac (Clive Owen), an MI5 agent, is closely monitoring her, and things get complicated when they begin falling for one another.

4. ‘Frances Ha‘

 This collaboration between filmmaker Noah Baumbach and star/co-screenwriter Greta Gerwig—a real-life couple that met while working on Greenberg—received plenty of critical praise, but didn’t’ exactly light up the box office. It’s an 86-minute black-and-white comedy-drama centered on Frances (Gerwig), a 27-year-old dancer who lives in Brooklyn with her hetero life-mate, Sophie (Mickey Sumner).

5. ‘Before Midnight‘

You’ve surely heard plenty about this, the third film in the Before Sunrise trilogy from filmmaker Richard Linklater and stars/co-writers Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. It’s one of the best movies of the year but sadly, only raked in just a shade over $8 million at the domestic box office. It’s set nine years after the events of 2004’s Before Sunset and sees the brash American novelist Jesse (Hawke) and his passionate French wife, Celine (Delpy), struggling to keep their relationship afloat.

To read the full list, click here.

[Source : Daily Beast]