Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 2021 ASBO Awards with your hosts Mrs Bold and Mr Italic!!!!

It’s been quite a year with COVID and that

I’ve worn a mask with my designer hat

I’ve self isolated in my 12 bedroom flat based in a steeple

See we’ve suffered like ordinary people…

I haven’t been able to go get my pret

I haven’t allowed my butler to clean yet

Nor have I been able to go to a movie

I haven’t had a holiday at the Louvr-ie

We have suffered like everyday guys

Having to go online for our Tiffanys buys

I’m running out of lines so it’s time let’s go

To find out the winners of the 2021 ASBOs.

Yes, thank you for joining us. To present the awards, here is Joe

Thank you, thank you. It’s been 14 months since I last posted the ASBO awards, where the film Monos won best picture, despite not getting a single Oscar nomination. Burning won the year before that, with Stephen Yeun starring (He’s nominated for his own Oscar this year). I’m not going to discuss the past 14 months, because who cares. There have been some great films and great performances though.

Riz Ahmed makes history as the first nominee for both an Oscar and an ASBO in the same category. In Mogul Mowgli, he plays an Indian rapper who suffers a degenerative disease. Kingsley Ben-Adir was a suprise snub as his calm collected performance as Malcolm X in One Night In Miami was totally overlooked. Sope Dirisu is one of the rising stars in film right now, and his leading role as an Asylum Seeker in horror film His House as he deals with being stuck in a haunted property facing his choices that he made when fleeing war-torn Sudan. As negative as my review of I’m Thinking of Ending Things was, the acting certainly was good. Jessie Plemons also had a brilliant year, featuring as a detective in Judas And The Black Messiah. His fearsome and intriguing performance in ITOET certainly was better than the script he was given.

However, there can only be one winner and that has to be Delroy Lindo in Da 5 Bloods. Playing a Vietnam veteran who has no connection with his son and is racked with guilt from the war, Lindo’s character leads his old squad to find the hidden gold. His descent into madness is intriguing to watch. He is the best part of a rather fantastic movie and it’s truly shocking he wasn’t recognised by the Oscars. Well done Delroy, you win the first ASBO of the year. (Read my summary of Da 5 Bloods here)

Now this is a tight category. Without patting my own back, I think the ASBO committee has done a good job at choosing six stellar nominees. Do we go for a playwrite who turns to rap in a midlife crisis (Radha Blank), an actress so good that she makes talking about literature in a car for 40 minutes somewhat tolerable (Jessie Buckley). How about an eight year old girl who has the world turn on her as it can’t control her temper? That’s Helena Zengel in the fantastic German film System Crasher, which despite it having only one ASBO nomination is essential viewing. Kelly O’Sullivan sensetively looks at issues for normal women in Saint Frances with such grace. Roxanne Scrimshaw was fantastic as a woman trying to come to terms with the fact her best friend may have killed her own child in the tragically underseen Lynn + Lucy. Not bad for a debut actor who auditioned when she saw the role advertised during her job at ALDI.

Scrimshaw and Zengel will be pipped at the post by Wunmi Mosaku. Playing a grieving mother in His House who seemed to have lost her daughter in the English Channel when immigrating to England, Mosaku really brought heart to the role. Both her and Sope Dirisu were fantastic and I really can’t wait to re-watch the movie. Well done on your ASBO Wunmi.

This years nominees have not one, but two posthumous nominations. Chadwick Boseman for Da 5 Bloods could’ve been anyone from that movie because it was such a great ensemble cast. However, the film was a sweet way to say goodbye to him, before Ma Rainey was even better. Brian Dennehy in Driveways provided a friend for a boy who had moved next door with no friends. The film was wonderfully subtle and understated and his performance was a key part of it. Minari was wonderful and eight year old Alan Kim totally understood the film and his performance with Yong Juh Yoon was truly snubbed. In Better Days, Jackson Ye played a love interest who swore to protect his girlfriend. His troubled performance was fun to watch. Apparently, he’s a big deal in China, so if I gave him an ASBO maybe this would open up London’s third best film blog to a new market. Bill Murray’s character in On The Rocks was at first fun and charming, however he had a deeper layer of sadness and loneliness.

This was so close again, especially with Dennehy providing such a wonderful performance. I’m going to have to give the award to Yi-Wen Chen in A Sun. The Taiwanese film is about a family where one son goes to jail and the other lives under the pressure of a highly expectant father, played by Chen. Chen’s grief and anger are palpable and in a film with a few good performances, he stands head and shoulders above the rest. You can watch his performance in this film on Netflix. Congratulations Yi-Wen on winning the third ASBO of the year.

Throughout ITOET, only one scene was genuinely good and that’s the dinner scene. 90% of that wasn’t due to Charlie Kaufman’s boring dialogue, but due to Toni Collette’s fantastically unnerving performance. How did such great performances lead to such boring movies? Both Kosar Ali and Ashley Madekwe were exceptional in British independent films Rocks and County Lines. Ali played the friend of a girl abandoned by her parents. Madekwe played the mother of a boy who transported drugs across the country. My runner up for this catergory was Nicola Burley in Lynn + Lucy who plays a mother ostracised by her own community and best friend following the death of her baby.

This years winner is Essie Davis who had a fantastic year. I could have nominated her for her role as the mother in Babyteeth, yet her role in The True History of the Kelly Gang as Ned Kelly’s mother stole the show. She was cold, hard and manipulative. The most interesting character to watch on the screen, I really enjoyed the scenes with her in, despite being somewhat cold to the rest of the film. Well done on your ASBO Essie. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it with pride. You can watch Essie in The Kelly Gang on Prime.

Following on from Weathering With You, this year we have two options for the animated ASBO, because I didn’t watch Croods new age. Josep is a film about a Spanish artist in a French concentration camp trying to get by. It’s a solid film which had very little attention around it. However, I’m giving the ASBO to Away, a Latvian film all if which was made by one person, from the story to the animation to the soundtrack. A silent movie, the cell shading looks like an indie video game and the whole film was charmingly hypnotic. Well done Away, you’ve won Latvia’s first ever ASBO.

These six films have wonderfully stylish cinematography. What is cinematography? I don’t really know, but I guess it’s just the use of camera or something.

Both Forty Year Old Version and Song without a name have a nice black and white style, especially song without a name having many satisfying symmetric shots. Da 5 Bloods deserves an honourable mention for its contrasting styles in its time jumps. My Octopus Teacher and His House both also look wonderful

However, this year the best cinematography goes to The Climb. The use of continuous shots to establish intimacy are brilliant and lead to some fantastically set up scenes. It’s engaging and great to watch. Congratulations on your ASBO The Climb.

Let’s not kid ourselves. I don’t know anything about costume design. Maybe Kelly Gang, maybe The Prom. Sure, whatever. Kelly Gang can have this ASBO.

This year, for the first time, we will be giving out a documentary ASBO. These 4 films all showed interesting stories. I Am Greta showed a child with asbergers turn into the world’s leading climate activist. Welcome to Chechnya showed the shocking treatment of LGBT people in Russia. However, this year is a two horse race between Boys State and Dick Johnson is Dead.

Boys State certainly was a more cinematic spectacle, focussing on a summer camp for wannabe political Texans which was equally concerning and empowering. Dick Johnson Is Dead was a sweet, yet odd film about a daughter coming to terms with the inevitable loss of her father who was developing dementia. Part of this is them creating a video tribute. It was intimate and quietly devastating film making which is an essential watch. I really connected with it and therefore, congratulations Dick Johnson, you win the first ever documentary ASBO.

This year’s five films are all incredibly diverse. Lesotho’s entry, TINABIAR is an understated movie about an elderly woman who doesn’t want her village to be relocated for the wealthy. Bacarau is some Battle Royale-esque bloodbath where people have payed to hunt humans, although the political messages aren’t clear if you’re not native. I’m No Longer Here focuses on a dancing squad member who witnesses a shooting and has to go into hiding. It’s a mature, level headed movie and is available on Netflix. The Mole Agent does have an Oscar nomination, but in the documentary category. It’s a delightful film about an 83 year old who is recruited to spy in an old persons’ home as a resident’s family worries for their mother. It’s a really charming film about loneliness in the end and it’s available on iPlayer. However, this year’s winner is A Sun. The Taiwanese entry was described earlier as it also won best supporting actor. The film focuses on family dynamics, crime and reform. It’s on Netflix and is well worth a watch.

What the heck do I know about Make Up & Hairstyling? Lynn + Lucy for using them to reflect Lynn’s fluctuating social status. Why not.

So the screenplay is the script, so which one had the best script? What a difficult question. They were all great. A Sun showed a deep family dynamic followed by some fantastic twists. Da 5 Bloods showed the effects of racism and war on a group of veterans. Rocks Showed an intimate, real look at the lives of teenage girls in London while His House provided a clever twist on the horror genre showing the terrible experiences of migrants. Lynn + Lucy looked at social status, intertwining it with an intriguing mystery.

Saint Frances was the freshest screenplay of the year, discussing women’s issues in an honest, open way. It intergrated this with comedy and was a deeply human piece of writing. It’s essential viewing to see different people in front of and behind a movie camera. Congratulations on your ASBO Saint Frances.

These films were all great, however the film at the party with music going all night has to win this category. The ASBO for Best Sound goes to… Lovers Rock.

His House takes us from London to Sudan to the Oscan and back with big scary monsters. Sonic The Hedgehog gives us a hedgehog which looks not as bad this time. While I didn’t enjoy Saint Maud, some of it’s later effects were on fire and very memorable. However, I’m going to award the ASBO to Welcome To Chechnya, a documentary about the poor treatment of LGBT individuals in Russia. To protect the subjects, the directors gave them fake faces and I didn’t notice this at all. It’s an incredible feat you can see on iPlayer. You can read about their methods here. Well done to the VFX artists for the film. You did an incredible job.

This is basically, what scenery looks the best. Kelly Gang used a dark rugged Australian look for authenticity. Little Joe used a sterile look in the labs with an ominous purple for the dangerous plants. Pinocchio used a slightly dark background, yet one full of mystery. ITOET used a variety of buildings to create mystery. However, the House of His House really was the third character in the film. Well done His House on the ASBO for best Production Design.

Here we are, best picture. So far, no film has more than 2 ASBO awards (Kelly Gang, His House & A Sun), so it really is there for anyone this year. Let’s look at the nominees

8) Wolfwalkers is an absolutely lovely film. It’s the best animated film this year. It’s about a girl who gets bit by a wolfwalker and becomes one. She then has to save the tribe of wolves. It’s a fun folklore film. It’s on Apple TV. If you have it, check it out. I probably also wrote a world class review.

7) Boys State didn’t win the ASBO for best documentary, but got a BP nomination. Why? Because while I thought Dick Johnson provided a better documentary, the Boys State film was a more complete spectacle. It was a fun look into politics with teenage boys all vying to get elected. It was equal parts troubling and empowering. If you have any interest in politics, it’s essential viewing. It’s on Apple TV. You can see my full thoughts here.

6) Saint Frances is a film I talked about in the Best Screenplay category. I don’t have much more to say apart from that it’s really good. It’s an important tale of self discovery and is well worth a watch as it breaks many taboo. You can see why it got a best picture nomination here, before watching it yourself on Netflix.

5) A Sun is a film I’ve also complimented throughout this post. I talked about it in the supporting actor, screenplay and international film categories so go there if you want to see more about it. I didn’t write a review on it sadly, but I fully endorse this Netflix based film.

So any of the top 4 realistically could have won. Part of the reason that Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is in fourth is because it would go against the spirit of these awards to give it a win, especially as it is nominated for FIVE Oscars, just not the Best Picture, which is rather criminal when films like Chicago 7 and Mank both are. The film focuses on a trumpeter called Levee wanting to make it big, however he is part of Ma Rainey’s band and she calls the shots. The film focuses on race and power and is just a fantastic watch. I raved about it previously and yeah, it’s on Netflix.

3) Da 5 Bloods was meant to be a big Oscar contender, but somehow it got totally snubbed apart from for best soundtrack. The film sees five black Vietnam veterans go back to get some treasure and make themselves rich. It becomes an intriguing character study brilliantly lead by Delroy Lindo. It’s on Netflix. Go and see it..

2) Lynn + Lucy is one of the best films I watched last year, and seemingly nobody else has seen it. Lynn & Lucy are best mates, Lucy ends up in an incident leading Lynn to question her, while being influenced by a society addicted to drama. It’s an incredible movie. Trust me and spend the time watching it. It’s available on BFI Player.

The 2021 Best Picture ASBO Goes To…

A great film should make you feel something. Whether it’s fear, love, hope or anger at a system which adversely affects those with whom you empaphise. When an immigrant couple are given a new house in London and a chance to start their new lives in the UK after fleeing war torn Sudan, you think it’s just that. However, moving on from their past traumas is easier said than done. The film does use some standard horror tropes, however it’s smart. It’s so much more than a horror. It becomes a character study and a larger metaphor. Much like Get Out a few years earlier, this film transcends the genre and is better for having one key factor that runs through it… A message.

It is with great honour that the third ASBO best picture is awarded to His House.

Well That’s it for another year.

Yes, so many great movies. We know you don’t want to read past this point so thank you

and goodnight.