Our panel of two sat down for an epic virtual discussion of our absolute favorites of 2009 — in every category we could think of — and set about explaining why each one made the list.

Admit it. Half the time when making a top ten list for the year, by the seventh or eighth slot you’re starting to get generous. A few choices you ‘respect’ but didn’t enjoy that much if you’re being honest. A favorite artist’s latest work was sort of a let down. At least one gets put on solely for credibility. We all know it happens.

So at Under Culture we nixed the top tens, top fives, top nine of ‘09 or what have you. Instead, we sat down for an epic virtual discussion of our absolute favorites of the year — in every category we could think of covering movies, TV, games, books, comics, music, and more — and set about explaining why each one made the list. This way you know everything that shows up here really deserves it. If your favorite isn’t mentioned, maybe it’s because we didn’t get around to it. Or it came in a close second. Or you are simply wrong. If so, let us have it in the comments with your own choices.

Some of these we’ve probably discussed on our podcast too, but it helps to have all the best stuff collected in one place. If you’d like to hear about what we love on a monthly basis, why not subscribe to that while you’re here?

And because we can’t resist a bad pun, we’ve dubbed these awards The Undies. So here they are: three pages of our favorite shit from 2009, in the second annual Undie Awards.

WATCHING

Best Movie

Brian: This was a weird year for movies. So much garbage, and so many great films, yet there wasn’t one that hands down deserves to win Best Picture. So I’m gonna get a little controversial and go with District 9. More than anything else this year, that film impressed the hell out of me on several different levels. The visual effects were stunning. The acting was terrific, especially for a lead actor we’d never seen before. It had a meaningful story and killer action at the expense of neither. But most of all it was a sci-fi blockbuster with intelligence. A kickass adventure that combines aliens, Kafka’s Metamorphosis and an apartheid metaphor? No one saw that coming. New filmmaker Neil Blomkamp reminded audiences as well as the Hollywood machine that an original work from a genuine talent is miles better than a brain-dead Transformers sequel. I truly believe that someday we’ll look back and District 9 will be grouped with Terminator, The Matrix, or Alien as a classic debut by a visionary genre director.

Spencer: Frankly, I think your choice would only be controversial in a year that isn’t 2009, especially since our mutual friend Josh and I came to pretty much the same conclusion when we were talking last week.  District 9, The Hurt Locker (a.k.a. Lethal Weapon of Mass Destruction), Star Trek… we’re talking a year where in all sincerity Star Trek is one of the best movies. Let that sink in for a moment. That said, my pick goes to one you recommended to me originally. It’s hilarious, but so dark and profane that it’s like an unlubricated horse cock shoved in your ear: In The Loop. It’s a poisonous acid bath of a comedy that examines the foibles of an ensemble of British and American diplomats as they bumblingly bring the world into war with an unspecified country in the Middle East. The crack performances are killer, but the lion’s share of credit has to go to the amazing, amazing writing. For me, In The Loop’s main achievement is how it makes you realize how truly fucking unfunny every other comedy of the last ten years was.

Best Netflix Rental

Brian: Back when I was doing a mile and a movie every day, I saw a lot of great stuff I’d never got around to, but the standout was Synechdoche, New York. I watched it alone one night, and it’s so complex, uncomfortable, grand in scale and absolutely stuffed with detail, that somehow this story of a theatre director’s crumbling life hit me like a punch in the gut. It’s not necessarily a pleasant thing to watch, but so few movies are that affecting or thought-provoking, it’s still a must-see.

Spencer: Wow, you’re probably the only person I can imagine calling that movie a must-see.  I’m an embarrassing decade late on this one, but I finally saw the HBO documentary From The Earth To The Moon, a historical dramatization of the space race and lunar missions. You only need to see the first 10 episodes, as the last two were a complete waste of time, but this miniseries got me on the highly dorky NASA kick you’ve been making fun of me for. The Apollo program is mankind’s most jaw-droppingly what-the-fuck accomplishment; it’s been almost forty years and we still haven’t gotten back to where we were then.

Best Documentary

Spencer: The Cove is about a cove in Japan where fishermen systematically and brutally slaughter dolphins while trying to hide their activities from media and activist groups. A lot of hype has been made about the Mission: Impossible-style team that goes undercover to finally obtain footage of the cove, and how they release it to the world in as sensational a fashion as possible. But in a year with some great documentaries, The Cove stood out not just for the story it told, but for provoking some Big Picture questions.

I think the film has a lot to say about cultural relativism. Killing dolphins, a practice shunned by the majority of the civilized world, and even parts that aren’t, is defended by the fishermen as “part of a time-honored tradition”. When confronted with the fact that the ocean is so poisoned dolphins are no longer a viable food source, that live dolphins are worth more than slaughtered ones economically, that it was never really a Japanese tradition, or any one of the other logical and scientifically grounded arguments made in the film, the fishermen and their political leaders just close their eyes and tune out.

Another issue it ponders is the death of activism. My dad seems unable to finish a meal without asking me why my generation isn’t rioting in the streets about the two wars our country is in the middle of. The smartass answer is that we know it won’t matter, but what The Cove says is, “Yes, it does, and here is how you do it.” Maybe this ties into the first issue. It seems like such substantial resources in this country have been dedicated to indoctrinating universal, unconditional acceptance of every stupid belief, tradition, and opinion, that maybe my generation has become totally amoral in its haste to avoid taking or giving offense.

So, well done The Cove.  You exposed a bunch of corrupt bastards, made a documentary that explored some exceptional and controversial themes, and even managed to get the South Park treatment for an episode this season (’Whale Whores’). Hopefully, the impact of the film can extend beyond the immediate issue at hand and reach an audience that shares the filmmakers’ passion for thinking critically and creating change based on the resulting insights.

Brian: Wow, after that thorough an endorsement I definitely need to check this one out. It may sound silly to draw a comparison between everything you said and my pick, but I honestly loved Darkon for some of the same reasons. No wait, don’t leave, hear me out!

Obviously Darkon is not about our messed up political systems or changing the world through activism, but it is a compelling documentary that touches on much bigger ideas. Yes, on the surface it simply follows a bunch of nerds who dress up on weekends to act out role-playing games on the grassy fields of public parks (to an occasionally extra-ridiculous effect as ‘normal’ people play soccer or have barbecues in the background). And maybe I’m alone on this, but the ‘action’ scenes were filmed so beautifully that part of me wanted to be there with them.

But what this film is really about is our tendency to live in a fantasy world of our own making that doesn’t really gel with the mundane realities of life. It examines our desire to go so far into escapism that it becomes our primary motivating force. Sure, you and I don’t own mock chain mail or foam-padded broadswords, but with all the time we spend with books or films or games, are we that much different? Is one form of escape any less acceptable than the other? Or are we all wrong to spend so much time outside of our real selves? Maybe the gift of being human is that we can pick imagination over drudgery and still get by.

My honorable mention, Anvil: The Story of Anvil treads some of the same ground. Here’s an 80’s metal band that by every account is washed up, should probably have given up years ago, and yet they choose to believe against all evidence that they’re still gonna ‘make it’. Delusional? Maybe. Sad? Often. But you have to admit, spending a lifetime doing what you love has to be considered some kind of success.

Spencer:  Who doesn’t love Anvil?  I haven’t met that person yet, and I certainly don’t want to.

Best Movie That Not Enough People Saw

Brian: There were so many under-the-radar greats this year that it’s hard to choose just one for this category. The one I’d recommend to pretty much anyone is In The Loop, so I’m glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. As I mentioned in my review after the LA Film Fest, it’s a rapid-fire political satire that plays like the evil twin of The West Wing, and it’s the best-written, funniest comedy I’ve seen in years.

But to at least give credit to one more underdog I’ll make an alternate pick. I could go with Moon, Big Fan, Thirst, or several others, but one I really wished more people saw or were talking about was The Brothers Bloom. Check out my full review for more, but it’s a super-charming, fun, twisty con film by Rian Johnson, the director of the visionary Brick, and it’s definitely worth a viewing.

Spencer: The Carter is an authorized documentary about Lil Wayne.  Upon seeing the final result, Lil Wayne opined that while it was a great movie, he was still going to fight tooth and nail to block its distribution.  The movie is two hours of watching Lil Wayne “put in work”, drink “sizzurp”, and generally just be the most insane rapper since ODB passed on.  Rent it now and enjoy the insanity.

Best Worst Movie

Spencer: They say there are two ways to learn by example: you can learn from what people are doing right…or what they’re doing wrong.  Jennifer’s Body illustrated the second half of the maxim; halfway through the snoozefest, I thought to myself, “Man, I really love Heathers“.

Brian: I’m gonna go with Ong Bak 2. It’s the most gorgeous, expensive-looking kung-fu movie made without the wire trickery of something like Hero, and Tony Jaa is incredibly talented, no question. But you can tell they wanted so badly to make an epic historical drama on top of a bad-ass martial arts action movie, and they only really nailed the part where dudes get kicked in the face.

Best Animated/Anime Movie or Show I Saw This Year

Brian: This one’s tough. Pixar has yet to disappoint, and Henry Selick’s work on Coraline was gorgeous, but I think out of this year’s bumper crop of animated work the one I’ll keep going back to is Fantastic Mr. Fox. It has the mix of charm, warmth and humor the last few Wes Anderson movies were short on, and it may sound cheesy, but I was delighted the whole way through.
Spencer: I will be mainstream to the max and say Up, for obvious reasons. The first ten minutes alone are one of the best things I saw this year.
Brian: Oh, and because it would be remiss to leave anime wholly off this list, one quick add-on: I highly recommend the series Death Note. It’s a bizarre fantasy-noir involving demons and a kid with the ability to kill anyone by writing their name in a magic notebook, but the cat-and-mouse story between him and the detectives trying to figure it all out makes for an excellent series.

Funniest Show on TV This Year

Spencer: For me, it’s a tie between the brilliant but familiar Curb Your Enthusiasm and the newcomer, Community. Curb Your Enthusiasm’s overarching reunion plot line worked perfectly, and the Jerry Seinfeld guest spots were some of the driest laughs in recent memory. I mean, they even had the balls to address the Michael Richards thing and turn it into a laugh! Meanwhile, Community came out of nowhere to eclipse Parks and Recreation (which continues to better find its voice), and surprisingly, 30 Rock (as it begins to lose its voice and stop turning out consistently great episodes). The brilliance of Community is that, aside from the lightning-fast dialogue, they’re so accomplished at the sort of structural gags that knock you on your ass (ending 30 Rock’s reign as the sole torch-bearer of the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Mr. Show tradition).

Brian: I’m with you, I think most of my favorite comedies have been on the wane, but both your picks were up there among the best. So lacking a better choice I’ll just recommend a ten-year-old British sitcom that came out on DVD in 2008. We’re nothing here if not cutting edge.

Seriously though, it astounds me that most of the people I know still haven’t seen Spaced, even the ones who loved the more recent work of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost — i.e. the guys from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. You know all those sitcoms you love from the past few years that are filmed more like movies than TV shows? This is where they got that idea. It even predates the original Office, it was that ahead of it’s time. Plus it’s about a bunch of slacker twenty-somethings obsessed with pop culture. So next time you’re on Hulu catching up on 30 Rock or Always Sunny, do yourself a favor and check out Spaced — they do have the whole series, after all.

Best Series on TV This Year

Brian: Are we living in a post-HBO era right now? It’s strange that none of the shows I’m considering came from the network that aired several of my favorite shows of all time. I finally caught up on Friday Night Lights and loved it, but the most recent seasons were not their best. Mad Men continues to be the show I most look forward to, but they got the Undie from me last year. Instead I’ll go with Breaking Bad, another killer show from AMC, the network that’s slowly earning the next crown for channel with the most respect for their audience’s intelligence and maturity. While everyone else is gorging on formulaic game shows and reality trash, here’s a show about the disturbing depths a man will go to provide for his family while staring down his own mortality. Season 2 got darker as Walter grew into his role as a meth kingpin, and the supporting characters had more chance to develop, making them almost as fascinating to watch as the absolutely brilliant Bryan Cranston.

Spencer: As funny as I found some shows, I haven’t found anything yet to replace the great weighty dramas of yesteryear, like The Wire and The Sopranos. I’m excited to watch Breaking Bad, especially after yet another rave from you, but for now, I’ve gotta abstain on this category.

Keep reading for Best Video Game, Best Book, Best Album That Isn’t On Any Other Best Of Lists, and more…

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