Michael Fassbender

Oscar Kightley

Kaimana

David Fane

Rachel House

Beulah Koale

Taika Waititi

Will Arnett

Elisabeth Moss

Uli Latukefu

Sisa Grey

Semu Filipo

Chris Alosio

Lehi Makisi Falepapalangi

Ioane Goodhue

Hio Pelesasa

Wil Kahele

Rhys Darby

Luke Hemsworth

Angus Sampson

Kaitlyn Dever

Levy Tuiala

James Burghardt

Patrick Mullen

Jonathan J.I. Knox

Loretta Ables Sayre

Don Nahaku

Lori Pelenise Tuisano

Tulalagalaga Tatalo Wily

Armani Makaiwa

William Chun

Roland Tupola

David Tu'itupou

Martin Tyler

Russell Satele

Michelle Chan Wong

Peter Borck

Natalie Bruce

Andrejs Prokopenko

Katrin Chong

Nicholas Monsour

Frances Lynn Hernandez

Arthur B Wilson III

Yana Gorskaya

Robert Pickens

Kaikala Tamanaha

Jaime Leigh McIntosh

Erica Preus

Ra Vincent

Nancy Hennah

Nat Sanders

Mary Vernieu

Judah Getz

Chris Terhune

Wendy Nomiyama

Tino Tanaka

Melinda Sue Gordon

Zack Earl Edwards

Dais Kasagawa

Vanesa Furnari

Richard Ruhe

Michael Hertlein

Jon Campfens

Stockton David Porter

Andrew A. Falk

Michelle Fowler

Phil Barrie

Nohealani NihipaliDay

Ryan A. Sullivan

Andrew AJ Johnson

Karen Ramirez

Josh McLaglen

Gabby Revilla Lugo

Taylor Jean

Barb Benoit

Olivia Montaño

Sophie Alexander

Michelle Wade Byrd

Rachel Jensen

David Loitz

Stephanie Tull

Meagen Lee

Christopher J. Wood

Smokey Cloud

Katie Doyle

Bradford Bell

Tim Unger

Greg Curry

Tobi Nova

Jerad Molkenthin

Teddy Phu-Thanh-Danh

David Presley

Berkley Spivey

Christopher Stanback

Rustam Gimadiyev

John Rex Woodward

Zachary Harrison

Lindsay Tessier

Alexander Eremin

Denton Akoni Kukahiko

Cyrus Apeles

Ben Benesh

Nigel Nally

Chris Strauser

Kristen B. Adams

Rebecca Runyon

Brian Tarlecki

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle

Jason Chen

Kemal Ally

David Crans

Tom Eagles

Michael Crowe

David V. Butler

Bogdan Zavarzin

Joel Erickson

Chris Birdsong

Austin Nelson

Joshua Algie

Johanna Bautista

Michael Giacchino

Jonathan Cavendish

Iain Morris

Garrett Basch

Andy Serkis

Mike Brett

Will Tennant

Kathryn Dean

Steve Jamison

Miyako Bellizzi

Lachlan Milne

Comedy

Drama

Next Goal Wins

The Imaginarium

Searchlight Pictures

TSG Entertainment

Garrett Basch Productions

Defender Films

Archer's Mark

New Zealand

United Kingdom

United States of America

English

world cup

based on true story

coach

football (soccer)

aftercreditsstinger

indigenous community

transphobia

transgender

Chris Sawin

A story with all the proper beats lives here, even if the film rambles and tampers off into ridiculousness when it has no reason to. But even with its flaws and redundant humor fatigue, _Next Goal Wins_ stands out as Taika Waititi’s most coherent film since Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

**Full review:** https://bit.ly/dontpassgoal

CinemaSerf

If you've seen "12 Mighty Orphans" (2021) or "The Shiny Shrimps" (2019) then you'll know what to expect as Taika Waititi takes the same template and applies it to football. Here it's the adequate Michael Fassbender who gets to portray the down on his luck coach (Thomas Rongen) in this factually based story. He's not much good at his job and is temperamentally a bit unreliable, so is dispatched to coach what is officially the world's worst team. American Samoa, still smarting from a 31-0 thumping at the hands of the ever so slightly more populated Australia, has a team whose viability is under scrutiny by the parent American Federation. Can Rongen turn things around? His team are the traditionally disparate group of well-meaning, distinctly amateur, enthusiasts. Unused to any concept of team playing, co-ordination and/or training - and their new boss's predilection for a bottle or two doesn't suggest change is going to come anytime soon. Local federation boss Tavita (Oscar Kightley) manages to inspire though - and what happens now is all rather predictable, but engagingly portrayed, as the team start to realise that defeat each time is not as inevitable as they might expect. It does present us with quite an interesting look at Polynesian attitudes - ones of compassion, fairness and tolerance. Winning is important, but it's not the be all and end all; and the eventual make up of their team - and it's constituent parts - is testament to a society that has way more right than it has wrong in the way it thinks and behaves. There's loads of humour - most of which comes from an on-form Kightley, but I found that a bit weak and just a little too stereotypical (albeit from their perspective rather than the American's). The best bits are probably in the trailers, but it's still just about worth a watch - but the television will be fine.

The last chunk of the film saves it somewhat, prior to that 'Next Goal Wins' is quite poor.

I like Taika Waititi and usually dig his humour a lot, but here his comedy put into the flick just isn't all that amusing annoyingly. I'm a big football fan so knew of the real life story that this is based upon, though even as such it kinda sits in the middle of being for sports fans and being for the average moviegoer... without really committing to either, at least that's how it felt to me; it's not comedic enough or sporty enough.

I found everything until the scene with a smiley face on the whiteboard to be real lame, like nothing I was watching was entertaining me... kinda cringey, if anything. A lot of the humour up to that moment felt forced, in fact the only parts that got a chuckle out of me were the white guy jokes. Michael Fassbender isn't any good up to that point, either.

Thankfully, the conclusion is fairly feel-good and does wrap things up well - to the point it gets an extra notch up with my rating. As noted I found Fassbender average, at best... Liam Neeson might've been a better cast, especially given they allude to a past role of the Northern Irishman's at one moment. Away from the lead, other cast members do do decent - namely Oscar Kightley, Kaimana and David Fane.

It feels a touch like the filmmakers were aiming to retread the path that opened via '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Lasso" rel="nofollow">Ted Lasso</a>'. I'm not into that television show, though safe to say it does a better job... if the similarity is a fair one on my part. '<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/bend-it-like-beckham/" rel="nofollow">Bend It Like Beckham</a>' is a shout also, but that comparison is probably me reaching in fairness.

Next Goal Wins( 2023)

Be happy.

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A review by Chris Sawin

Written by Chris Sawin on Sat Nov 18 2023

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