The Deadly Ponies Gang 2013

All hail Clint and Dwayne, awesome pony-riding gang of two. Best friends who hang out on the rural fringes of South Auckland, they deal tinnies to pony club mums and bling out their own brave steeds with pearls, sunglasses and glitter. Their Māori friend Kody is busting to join the white-boy gang, but he’s only 12 so they’re holding him off for the time being. Community-spirited in the best gang tradition, they stage their own Christmas parade and hand out toys like money’s no object. ‘Let’s just say these presents come from people who can afford more presents,’ explains Clint. Never short of a suave move himself when the ladies come to pat the ponies, he worries that Dwayne’s not pulling the way he once did. Maybe he can turn that around by getting young Dwayne a new set of teeth.

Zoe McIntosh, whose last subject was the cross-dressing attorney Rob Moodie (Lost in Wonderland), doesn’t want you to mistake this equally improbable portrait for a mockumentary. She has devised the perfect showcase for the deadpan laugh bombs of real-life friends Clint Rarm and Dwayne Sissons. There’s a touch of Bret and Jemaine about their unfaltering super-coolness: these might be the Conchords’ embarrassing lowlife country cousins. Real lives and comic personas merge in a dramatic climax, which all too clearly actually took place: The ‘Help My Mate Dwayne Get Some Teeth Fundraiser’ Gig, on Ponsonby Road, featuring the Rhymestone Cowboy. He raps on a horse. You have been warned.

McIntosh and her stellar gang have composed the funniest movie valentine to stoned mateship and recreational innovation in New Zealand’s backblocks since Kaikohe Demolition.