Next Goal Wins review: Taika Waititi’s true sports story scores a 0

Review ofNext Goal wins comes from the film’s premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released on November.

A sports drama is a great way to entertain a large crowd. Few things are as good for comfort watching, excitement and surprise twists as movies or shows centered around a sports theme. This genre thrives on rousing speeches and intense montages. It also features athletic feats, cathartic victories, and a variety of other elements. Sport is cross-cultural and offers universal story beats, but still remains unique to each sport or community. It’s as true for the story of women’s baseball in The following are some of the ways to get in touch with each other League of Their OwnIt is the same for the High School Volleyball anime Haikyu!!It is a microcosmic celebration of friendship and persistence.

Enter Thor RagnarokDirector Our Flag Means DeathTaika waititi has a reputation for making crowd pleasing comedies with quirky, lovable characters who endure difficulties. Waititi’s long-awaited soccer movie Next Goal wins, a time capsule buried pre-COVID (it wrapped production in January 2020), includes every beat of a standard underdog sports story, told with Waititi’s signature New Zealand style of humor. There are no surprises in this film, but its jokes land and characters are delightful. Unfortunately, the movie never conveys the real reasons why soccer is so popular.

This story is based on the true events of American Samoa’s football team. They are the record holders for the most embarrassing soccer defeats in history. The team lost by 31-0 against Australia during the World Cup qualifying matches in 2002. Then they attempted a comeback under Dutch American coach Thomas Rongen (played in this movie by Michael Fassbender, who can’t seem to keep up with the script’s comedic rhythm).

In Waititi’s version of the story, all of American Samoa hopes and prays for the day when their team can win — or at least score a single goal, which they have never done. (That’s the first of many changes Waititi and co-writer Iain Morris bring to the team’s actual history.) Fans are accustomed to the mix of despair and hope that comes with rooting for their team, and then watching them fail again and again. That’s the most relatable part of the movie. The movie touches on World Cup qualifying, FIFA’s complicated and dumb rules, historic rivalries, and even the FIFA rules by continent. But most of all, it’s deprecatingly funny about the sensation of knowing your home team sucks, but rooting for it, and hoping the next game will be different.

So it’s too bad the film mostly shoves that idea aside. There’s some on-screen play, and a few clever jokes about the qualification system. (American Samoa doesn’t even play big teams; it just goes up against other small islands with not-so-good teams.) There’s a lot of excitement in a good sports drama, but the film isn’t very exciting. There’s little thought about how this team plays this sport — or even why. The island’s relationship with football and the team’s strategies are hand-waived into oblivion. There is little of Next Goal winsNever express why your country should even attempt to compete at football again following its embarrassing defeat.

Compare and contrast Enjoy Cool RunningsThis 1993 movie is about Jamaica’s first bobsled international team. This movie tried to explain to the audience why these characters were so committed to the sport. They also explained why competing in the Winter Olympics meant so much to them. There’s none of that in Next Goal wins. In trying to be broadly universal, Waititi’s script loses the specificity and satisfaction that won awards and acclaim for the original version of Next Goal wins, the 2014 documentary about this same team’s comeback.

While Waititi’s fictionalized take on Next Goal wins is flawed and messy as a sports movie, though, it works as a comedy, at least for those who appreciate Waititi’s style. He is so integral to the story that the very first thing you see is his voice. The same as with Wilderpeople: Hunt for the WilderpeopleHe shows up in the film as a silly priest. Waititi acts as a narrator throughout the entire film and provides context.

That often distracts from the story at hand and the more interesting characters, like faʻafafine player Jaiyah Saelua (played by nonbinary actor Kaimana), who winds up as the film’s heart and soul. Unfortunately, while Jaiyah’s story is gripping and historically significant, the film noticeably spends its time using Jaiyah as a prop for Coach Rongen’s story of overcoming his transphobia. At least the film does mostly avoid falling to the conventions of white savior stories, by confronting Rongen’s role in the story head-on.

Photo by TIFF

Also, pivotal moments occur. Although a foreign, white coach has been the driving force behind the big changes in the team Next Goal winsHe is never portrayed as smart or as brilliant. He’s no Ted Lasso — he’s the underdog who needs saving by the rest of the team, which is full of memorable if somewhat underserved characters. (There’s only so much screen time available for 11 players plus reserves in a 103-minute movie.)

Next Goal winsThe film fails to convey the compelling story behind the American Samoa National Football Team by making it so universal. It also makes the sport seem unimportant. This is true if the goal was to allow the audience to relate with each member of the team. But it’s such a cookie-cutter underdog story that it rarely moves past the most superficial “Care because this movie says you need to care” level.

There just isn’t much to differentiate Next Goal winsIt’s a far cry from the usual cliched underdog story. But what does salvage it is Taika Waititi’s ability to create quirky worlds filled with lovable characters. It’s no surprise that the catharsis is delivered in the final game of this feel-good story. But in such a broad and bland movie, that one moment of familiar triumph is an empty gesture, one that isn’t particularly memorable after the credits roll. This is not Ted Lasso, and it didn’t have to be. But it didn’t have to be so by-the-numbers, either.

Next Goal winsThe movie will be released in cinemas on November 17.