The King Loser Film Is The Big Winner This Year

Friday is fun because it's about music - and so there's playlist. Today I revisit one of my favourite bands because of the Film Festival.

It’s Film Festival season here in New Zealand. Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival 2023 has just kicked off in Auckland and will be in Wellington next week, and tours through the country across July, August and September. Over 100 films, from international and local filmmakers across almost all genres, including plenty of documentaries (always a favourite).

Today, I want to tell you about one film only. Because I’ve been lucky enough to see a screener (advance copy) of one of the key local titles in this year’s festival. It is, as you’ll have guessed (given I’m writing about it here on a Friday) a music title. It is the documentary King Loser, about the band King Loser. And it is the greatest music movie that has ever been made in New Zealand. I’m quite certain about that.

It is also one of the very best portraits of being a creative person in New Zealand – kicking against the pricks.

A friend introduced me to King Loser’s music when I was just at the end of high school, changing cities, moving to Wellington – ostensibly for university. Another friend bemoaned their lack of talent (based only on technique – which is usually a losing argument, shortsighted at the least, particularly when a crowd is feeling something).

Some of my other friends loved King Loser. Some of my other friends hated them, failed to understand them.

I loved the effect this band’s music had.

Live on stage they were unpredictable, wild, exciting. And on record they were almost as mesmerising. Somehow, they combined elements of country, surf-guitar and indie pop. It was almost as if Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood’s music and the Pulp Fiction soundtrack has been put in the Flying Nun blender. Out came the music of King Loser. In wonderful chunks.

Bands like King Loser cannot last forever. And indeed, it was done in a flash. They formed at the end of the early 1990s, and couldn’t last the decade. They had a Spinal Tap-like number of drummers. And at the broken, bickering heart of the band stood its love/hate duo of Chris Heazlewood and Celia Mancini. They loved and hated more than each other. They loved and hated the world, and the music they made, and the machine that trapped them, the industry that couldn’t contain them.

Both would make music in other formats, but King Loser is their legacy. And when the final, and definitive line-up (also featuring Sean O’Reilly and Lance Strickland, AKA Tribal Thunder) decided in 2015/16 to have a go at a reunion, well, the seeds were sown for the documentary feature which – in 2023 – is finally a reality.

Like the very best music documentaries, you don’t need to know much at all about King Loser, you don’t even need to know their music. But of course I’m going to share some of it here.

I don’t want to spoil this film, but it is my intention to give it the hype and kudos it deserves.

Celia and Chris and Lance and Sean managed to make a cloud of music out of psych-rock, indie-pop and surf-rock. It was art as much as it was music. It was a statement and a scene. They were beyond cool as far as I was concerned. I saw them a few times in Wellington and Auckland and couldn’t believe my luck.

I bought their Caul of The Outlaw album on vinyl and the Stairway To Heaven single too. I had all three of their official album releases on CD. And I still listen to the music. Often. Because it transports me to that time and place. And because I genuinely think it’s fantastic music. Moody, messy, brutal and beautiful.

Filmmakers Cushla Dillon and Andrew Moore seemed to know exactly how to frame this story, with brilliant glimpses from the vault – including some retro Kiwi music TV clips. Both Andrew and Cushla have been behind feature films, documentaries and music videos. They have been chronicling and contributing to New Zealand culture in various ways across the years. And their combined efforts here have resulted in a film that had me hooked from its opening. That very nearly had me in tears, via incredulous laughter and some anger/rage/embarrassment moments too. All the emotions.

Making a statement in this country – particularly an artistic one, a meaningful, interesting one – is hard. Even harder to make it (really) stick. And King Loser might hate being summed up as successful in that regard. They seemed to be self-sabotaging as both performance-art and blinding mistake. It was a sincere wind-up. Or something. But they made me happy. They made me go crazy. And to just think about their music is sometimes enough. To hear it is to be transported. Instantly.

Dillon and Moore get to all of this. And more. Much more.

You’ll hear and feel the music. You’ll sense and wince at the frustration, the weird world of it all. And if you’re already a fan of the music you’re in for an obvious treat. But if you’re going in without much interest/knowledge around the tunes and albums then you have that to come away with after.

I’m beyond honoured to be moderating the Q&A after the Wellington session.

And I already can’t wait to see this film again. This time on the big screen.

What a band. What a film.

But it’s Friday, so I’ve also made you a playlist that has nothing to do with the film festival, and doesn’t feature any King Loser. So if the film really doesn’t sound like your cuppa, then there’s at least something here for you I hope.

Happy weekend. And let me know if you’re keen on seeing the film – or if you have other music films/docos from the festival programme that you’re hoping to see?