Title – Next Goal Wins (2023) 

Director – Taika Waititi (Boy) 

Cast – Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Will Arnett, Elisabeth Moss

Plot – Based on the true story of the American Samoa soccer team who turned to infamous coach Thomas Rongen (Fassbender) to help turn their fortunes around or even just kick a single goal! 

“Be careful, my mister”

Review by Eddie on 11/09/2024

Based on a true story and the well regarded documentary feature from 2014 with the same title, New Zealand director Taika Waititi’s first feature film since his divisive Thor: Love and Thunder is a sports comedy that sees the well-liked Hollywood player return to the roots he established with his odd-ball dramedies Boy and Hunt for the Wilderpeople but while Next Goal Wins shows snippets of what caused many to fall in love with Waititi’s offerings over the past decade, it’s hard to walk away from this rather generic fish out of water sports story that never goes for a hattrick with much enthusiasm. 

Originally filmed all the way back in 2019 and the victim of numerous delays that included issues with original cast member Armie Hammer, Goal was a film that many involved with seemed to have fallen out of love with, as Waititi’s film released to little fanfare around the world late in 2023, causing this Searchlight Pictures offering too come away from its box office run with less than $20 million in ticket sales and a critical and audience reaction that Waititi had not yet faced outside of his Marvel products. 

Bringing along Michael Fassbender for an against type performance as troubled soccer coach Thomas Rongen, who reluctantly accepts a job in America Samoa to oversee their disastrously bad men’s soccer team, who had in recent times been victims to some of the worst ever losses in football history, Waititi had a fair amount of potential at his fingertips when you judge Goal by its cover but the film is never able to get into a significantly notable groove as it goes along its way, generically ticking off a number of boxes that will be of little surprise to anyone that’s ever watched an underdog sporting film before. 

A filmmaker who has previously managed to instil a significant amount of originality and charm into films that would otherwise be victims of pedestrian delivery, from Boy/Wilderpeople’s coming of age tales, Thor: Ragnarok’s reimagining of a comic favourite, Jojo Rabbit’s WW2 film with a difference or What We Do in the Shadow’s mockumentary shenanigans, Goal finds Waititi bereft of these elements, which makes it hard to understand why he was so drawn to the film in the first place if this was going to be his approach to the material? 

It’s not to say Goal is an outright failure, it does have its small charms and Fassbender at times is as good as he has been for years, particularly in a late segment where we understand more about Rongen’s past, but with many jokes falling flat, soccer segments lacking any excitement and a general sense that there’s not a lot of love that was given to this feature, it’s not hard to see why Goal came and went with little notice. 

Here’s hoping Waititi can find his mojo once more after two back to back disappointments that are starting to point towards a director that’s ran out of new ideas. 

Final Say – 

A generic sports dramedy that would’ve benefited greatly from the spark that’s been found in prior Taika Waititi films, Next Goal Wins is a passable time waster but a missed opportunity to be so much more. 

2 1/2 misused permanent markers out of 5