Next Goal Wins

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana, David Fane, Beultah Koale, Elisabeth Moss, Will Arnett, Uli Latukefu, Taika Waititi, Luke Hemsworth
Directed by: Taika Waititi
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sport
2023

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An outcast American soccer coach (Michael Fassbender) reluctantly agrees to coach the American Samoa soccer team, most known for losing a match to Australia 31-0.

Review:

Tim: It feels like a bit of Taika Waititi's sheen has come off recently. He's delivered some incredibly strong films, most noteworthy, Thor: Ragnarok (a film I found far better than his award-winning Jojo Rabbit. However, Thor: Love and Thunder was a bit of a mess. Now, he delivers a sports comedy, which is easily his worst movie yet. Next Goal Wins isn't a terrible movie, but it feels like a fairly big miss. There was a very strong movie in this story, but Waititi is never able to find it. I struggled with this film and I'm still second guessing my final rating. Calling this movie "decent" may be slightly inflated.

This true story was apparently told in a documentary with the same name- I haven't seen it, but I imagine it has to be much better than this. The story itself is surprising. First, that American Samoa actually lost an international friendly to Australia 31-0. Then, an American coach came to the tiny island to help change their team's fortunes. Then, that he actually had some level of success. The story is great- but the delivery of it leaves a lot to be desired. That's really a big reason why I am giving this film perhaps more credit than it deserves. It tells this unbelievable true story in a way that will reach more viewers than the documentary will. And, people should know about this true story. It's a redemption story, an underdog story, a humanity story (the fact that a non-binary player has such a huge role in that story is wonderful). Waititi does deliver all these elements and while the execution is lacking, this is still a good story that more people should learn about.

The film itself always felt average to below average to me. I didn't find the movie funny at all- I honestly can't recall laughing a single time. There were no great lines. It's like Waititi (a writer as well) placed all bets on the incredulous story itself and were unable to find the actual humor in the story. The attempts at comedy mostly feel forced. The closest the film gets is to put American Samoa culture on display- it comes across as this eye twinkle- "Look at their silly culture that is so different than American culture! And oh, by the way, their "silliness" is actually far, far better than most worldviews throughout the world." That's really a big takeaway here. It's hard not to watch this movie and feel delight at American Samoa. However, that's not exactly funny. A lot of the gags- drawing boobs on a face, the coach stealing Al Pacino's Any Given Sunday speech- are simply not funny, not creative, not worth our time. Waititi seems to think these moments are hilarious and they made me cringe more than anything. I couldn't believe the lack of authentic humor in this film.

The cast isn't great, either. I really like Michael Fassbender, but he seemed out of sorts here. His performance often felt forced- like he was actually as reluctant to play this role as his character was to coach the team. Fassbender tries, but humor felt too foreign to him. He can't quite be at ease with himself. His performance is a tad too rigid- he never fully leans into the ridiculous of the part and his performance suffers as a result. He's not bad in the role, but he's forgettable and generic. Oscar Kightley gives perhaps the best performance of the film. His earnestness, his silliness, it's all wonderful. He effortlessly embraces the absurd and the comedy in his character, which is directly opposite to how Fassbender comes across. My favorite scenes of the film mostly involved Kightley. Kaimana was solid- they make their presence felt throughout the entirety of the movie. David Fane has some nice comedic moments that helped the movie immensely. Beulah Koale felt like he could have been a great part of this film, but his role eventually becomes overshadowed. I'm not sure the film knew what to do with him. He's presented at first like the "leader" of the players, but his role is subsumed by Kaimana's character. It was nice seeing Elisabeth Moss and Will Arnett here, but they have little to do. Taika Waititi gave himself a small part, but he added nothing to the film on screen. As a whole, the cast felt very average to me.

The soccer scenes are okay, but Waititi doesn't seem to be a great sports director. We really only get practices and one actual match, but it's never that exciting. I suspect getting the match to look more authentic was challenging, but it's one that Waititi can't quite rise to. The cinematography was fine, but the action left a lot to be desired.

I think my biggest issues with this film come from the fact that I never really cared about these characters very much. I appreciated the actors at times, trying their best. But, the characters themselves never really emerged as fully multidimensional, intriguing characters. They were paper thin. There's a nice twist towards the end of the film and I just kind of shrugged it off. It was a cool narrative moment, but I was never all that invested in them anyway. Inspirational sports movies have been done many times before and there's something immediately interesting about them- it's not a surprise that there are so many thoroughly entertaining movies in that genre. Next Goal Wins doesn't make it. It's fine, heavily, heavily flawed. I could have probably given this a "6", but the true story is inspiring and the footage at the end of the movie is impressive. I still like Waititi and I've seen what a powerful director he can be. However, this film feels like a bit of a failure and I hope he figures out how to reverse this trend.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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