Director Christopher Pryor and producer Miriam Smith’s follow-up to their stellar 2012 documentary How Far Is Heaven is one of the most powerfully cinematic New Zealand movies ever made. Although the stunning black and white visuals alone make this new documentary a must-see, it’s also ridiculously entertaining, repeatedly insightful and consistently hilarious.

The ostensible focus is the Reporoa Rugby Club, a tiny rural outfit determined to really make a go of the coming season, for which they find themselves in reasonably good shape. Sounds familiar right? It becomes apparent pretty early on (multiple c-words fly freely in the opening seconds) that this film is not interested in following the clichéd narrative that set-up suggests. Rugby is the central thread, and time is spent on the field, but much more interesting are the observations made about drinking, contemporary rural life, boozing, male bonding and getting drunk.

Did I mention there’s a lot of alcohol? You wouldn’t exactly say the endless debauchery on display glorifies New Zealand’s drinking culture — there are plenty of genuinely grim moments. That said, I found it difficult not to get caught up in the on-screen fervour — it’s undeniably compelling cinema. Plus these bawdier, crazier aspects of the film, coupled with the startling cinematography, help prevent it from being simply yet another parade of gentle rural tropes. What really endures though is the characters, who have names like Peanut, Slug and Steady.

Many aspects of the ‘typical’ Kiwi male are evoked, but none of these guys are stereotypes — their personalities shine through in the most endearing way possible. It all combines into a documentary much greater that the sum of its parts — Pryor and Smith have achieved something intangibly special here, and it should be experienced inside a cinema.