Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 8 May

King Loser (Dillon/Moore, 2023)

Back in my Capital Times days I made a shabby wisecrack about the state of punk and hardcore music documentaries – “un-watchable films about un-listenable music”.

I admitted it was a cheap shot at the time, especially as some of my favourite documentaries are – and will continue to be – films like A Band Called Death, Anvil, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Lemmy, Flight 666 and American Hardcore.

Since then, there have been notable New Zealand entries into the canon: films about the Skeptics, Shihad, Martin Phillipps and the Chills and the closest to today’s recommendation, Swagger of Thieves – Julian Boshier’s film about the unlikely comeback of Wellington band Head Like a Hole.

In 2016, a King Loser return was even less likely. That band that had self-destructed in 1996, and nothing about what had happened to them since suggested that they were stable enough to carry a short national reunion tour to a successful conclusion. But they gave it a go, followed by the brave camera of Andrew Moore.

King Loser were a – excuse my loose definitions, I’m not an expert – New Zealand surf-punk band of the early to mid-90s, centred around the mercurial personalities and relationship of guitarist Chris Heazlewood and bass player Celia Mancini.

Alcohol, drugs, lack of self-discipline and incipient mental illness conspired to prevent them from achieving world domination in the last decade where such a thing was possible. Based on the lifestyles presented in the film, it’s surprising they didn’t all die of scurvy before the millennium even arrived.

Instead, they fell apart, personally and professionally, but in 2016 they reformed the last version of the band for a festival appearance and joyless tour.

It’s not entirely clear from Cushla Dillon and Andrew Moore’s brilliant film why they decided to put themselves through this. A payday was surely a factor, but also the opportunity to say something about themselves and etch their achievements in some form of posterity.

Unfortunately, Mancini was in no fit medical or mental state to tour and the documentary follows their incessant bickering through rehearsals and several fractious gigs.

The genius of the film, though, is that it carefully replays the history of the band alongside this painful experience, and it managed to always answer the next question I had – right at the moment I asked it. New illumination arrives just at the right time.

King Loser is a film about – among other things – the dangers of believing the rock ‘n roll hype and living the lifestyle to such a degree that you lose yourself inside it. The most successful rock stars are the ones who can turn that shit on and off, put the costume on when required.

Because, as so many of us have learned, it’s just a job and the job will never love you back. You have to continue to live in the real world, no matter how much you rail or rebel against it, and failure to acknowledge that means you are that much more likely to end up with some kind of chemical dependence, living under a bridge with a few of your books for company.

I can’t remember what it is called now – and I never had a chance to see the complete film – but I saw a trailer for a documentary once about punk musicians who had become fathers. It was a fly-on-the-wall film showing these tattooed freaks getting their little moppets ready for school, making sure they had full lunch boxes and praising the Disney princess artwork they brought home.

Somehow, they were able to balance the fantasy of nihilistically screaming into microphones for a living with the reality of toilet paper shopping and parent-teacher evenings. Heazlewood and Mancini never found that unlikely equilibrium.

Anyway, King Loser the film is a great piece of work – even though I cannot stand the music – and it’s a portrait of New Zealand culture that absolutely deserved the NZ On Air Taite Prize for Outstanding Music Journalism a couple of weeks ago. See it if you get the chance.

---

---

Where to watch King Loser