Film Review - Next Goal Wins (2024)

Next Goal Wins is the new film by Taika Waititi and is based off of the American Samoa Soccer Team who in 2001 suffered a humiliating 31-0 defeat at the hands of the Socceroos, now 10 years later Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is sent there after losing his job to help whip this team into shape before the World Cup Qualifiers but it will not be easy.

Next Goal Wins is not a bad movie from Waititi (those would be Thor: Love and Thunder which got far too silly and Jojo Rabbit which made me so disgusted with its frivolousness in the beginning of that film I nearly walked out of the cinema) but it is not one of his better films either (those would be Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok.)

The main reason it didn’t really do it for me is that I’m starting to get a little bit over Waititi’s style of comedy, it was a lot of fun in Wilderpeople and even in Ragnarok at times but here I didn’t really find myself laughing all that much (though I did chuckle a few times) and I also felt that its attempts at comedy felt like everyone involved was trying too hard to generate those big cinema crowd laughs and when that doesn’t happen I feel a little embarrassed for all involved.

But that said there is some good to be had here, Fassbender is good as Rongen even though I liked him more in David Fincher’s The Killer last year and a lot of the pacific island actors are good as well, I particularly liked Oscar Kightley the head of the American Samoa Football Club and Kaimana as Jaiyah a trans soccer player plus Rachel House fresh from Foundation Season 2, Will Arnett, Angus Sampson and Luke Hemsworth have fun small roles as well plus when the film plays itself as more sincere it did make me smile.

But alas Waititi is starting to become one of those filmmakers like George Lucas or M Night Shyamalan where they can become their own worst enemy and they have to play things a certain way when they sometimes need to just let a good story play out on its own and not feel the need to inject themselves so much into it and that happens here sadly, I hope Waititi changes course soon as I do feel he is a talented guy who is letting his ego run rampant.

And so that was Next Goal Wins and its fun for the most part but it didn’t really work all that well for me as I felt its laughs were too forced and I’m a little over Waititi and his style at the moment, 2 out of 5.