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

Yana Gorskaya

Nicholas Monsour

Ra Vincent

Peter Borck

Frances Lynn Hernandez

Katrin Chong

Natalie Bruce

Jaime Leigh McIntosh

Robert Pickens

Erica Preus

Kaikala Tamanaha

Nancy Hennah

Arthur B Wilson III

Andrejs Prokopenko

Sophie Alexander

Gabby Revilla Lugo

Tom Eagles

Nat Sanders

Katie Doyle

Mary Vernieu

Michelle Wade Byrd

Taylor Jean

Karen Ramirez

Stephanie Tull

Zack Earl Edwards

Rachel Jensen

Dais Kasagawa

Josh McLaglen

Stockton David Porter

Kristen B. Adams

Michael Crowe

Andrew A. Falk

Michelle Fowler

Vanesa Furnari

Meagen Lee

David Loitz

Richard Ruhe

Rebecca Runyon

Christopher Stanback

Tino Tanaka

Christopher J. Wood

Phil Barrie

Bradford Bell

David V. Butler

Smokey Cloud

Joel Erickson

Judah Getz

Rustam Gimadiyev

Michael Hertlein

Nohealani NihipaliDay

Tobi Nova

Ryan A. Sullivan

Brian Tarlecki

Chris Terhune

Bogdan Zavarzin

Cyrus Apeles

Kemal Ally

Barb Benoit

Jon Campfens

Jason Chen

Chris Birdsong

Ben Benesh

David Crans

Alexander Eremin

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle

Melinda Sue Gordon

Andrew 'A.J.' Johnson

Denton Akoni Kukahiko

Jerad Molkenthin

Olivia Montaño

Nigel Nally

Austin Nelson

Teddy Phu-Thanh-Danh

David Presley

Berkley Spivey

Chris Strauser

Tim Unger

John Rex Woodward

Joshua Algie

Johanna Bautista

Zachary Harrison

Wendy Nomiyama

Lindsay Tessier

Greg Curry

Michael Giacchino

Garrett Basch

Jonathan Cavendish

Iain Morris

Andy Serkis

Will Tennant

Kathryn Dean

Mike Brett

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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