Next Goal Wins
Taika Waititi’s underdog sports story could have used some better coaching.
Michael Fassbender cheers on his team in Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins.
In April 2001, the American Samoa football team set a world record that stands today — the worst loss ever recorded in an international football (that’s soccer to us Yanks). This rather ignominious record plagued the team ever since, making the team and the nation of American Samoa laughingstocks in the football community.
Used to the mockery, the Football Federation of American Samoa has a reasonable objective for their team: They want one goal in international competition. Not a win. Not even a draw. Just a single, solitary goal to prove that will help the team and the nation win back some of its pride.
Sounds easy enough, right?
It should be, but the FFAS’ best hope of one goal is Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), a recently fired football coach who is known for his temper. It’s not a match made in heaven, but it could get them to win a match.
Can the team achieve their goal?
While the movie is based on a true story (and a documentary of the same title), Next Goal Wins doesn’t really feel true. It feels lazy.
Director Taika Waititi has made himself a darling of the hipster film crew. Funny, smart, and fearless, his films typically tackle tough subjects with a whimsical humor that is charming and incisive. The man played Hitler for laughs…and got them. So why is Next Goal Wins the sort of treacly feel-good sports movie you’d semi-watch while folding laundry?
Essentially, this movie is Taika Waititi’s version of The Mighty Ducks, hitting all the dramatic beats you’d expect in an underdog sports movie. And while the bar for that may not be high, Waititi fails to jump it. In a film about embracing failure and realizing that success is its own trap, perhaps that’s the point, but the film itself feels hollow as a result. At least I can still name some characters from The Mighty Ducks…
The biggest problem is Rongen, who takes center stage in this tale. A movie that should have been about the islanders and what the game means to them is turned into a typical “exotic people save the distressed white person” narrative. Rongen is deeply damaged, and everyone in American Samoa has time to fix him, evidently. We learn all about his theories on the game, his traumas, and his superiority complex. Frankly, it’s not a new story, and it’s not that fun watching Fassbender Eat, Pray, Love his way through the island.
The islanders are underserved by the script. For the most part, they are a band of affable misfits who say funny things when funny things need to be said. We have no idea why these people are committed to keeping the game of soccer alive in American Samoa. As someone who watched their beloved baseball team lose 30-3 in 2007, I can verify that losses like this are bad for your psyche and it would have been nice if Waititi had bothered exploring this at all. Still, there is clearly a team and they clearly want to play, it would be nice to understand what the game means to them if it means anything at all. When Rongen recruits new players to replace others, we get no reaction from anyone on the team. They simply exist to be funny, and because you need 11 bodies behind Rongen to play football while he’s angrily sniping about something.
The only team member who gets any sort of development is Jaiyah (played by Kaimana in her big-screen debut). The real Jaiyah was the first openly trans and nonbinary athlete to play in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. That might have been an interesting story to base the film around, but unfortunately, she’s mostly there to awaken Rongen’s tender side and make him remember to be nice to people because you never know what battles they’re fighting (or whatever Hallmark card nonsense is the point of this character arc).
While the film should clearly be about Jaiyah, Waititi is only willing to pepper in some interesting tidbits throughout the film. The real Jaiyah made her World Cup debut at 15 and continued playing for the team into her 30s. The American Samoans call Jaiyah fa’afafine — a term denoting their third gender. They accept her and respect her even though the entire nation is deeply Christian. How a people who stop once a day, no matter what they’re doing, to pray has openly accepted and protected the trans community is a fascinating story, and one you won’t be getting in Next Goal Wins.
While the movie isn’t a disaster, it’s disappointing coming from a director capable of so much more. Waititi’s at his best when he’s crafting highly specific characters with foibles and oddities who face impossible situations. Next Goal Wins feels like a man saying whatever he thinks will earn him a laugh. It works to a point — there are plenty of chuckles to be had in the movie — but it’s all incredibly shallow. We don’t know these players, and their quirky lines feel like an invitation to laugh at them, rather than with them. It doesn’t help that Waititi shoves himself into the film in a cameo that was clearly made just so audience members would nudge each other and whisper, “That’s Taika Waititi!” to each other.
If you like an underdog story, I’d recommend screening Nyad on Netflix. But if you’re still jonesing after the Our Flag Means Death finale and need a fix of Waititi-brand humor, Next Goal Wins will likely fulfill it. But this will not top anyone’s list of favorite Taika Waititi films.
Verdict: Devoid of character development, this underdog sports story is only enjoyable for the light laughs and pretty scenery.
Next Goal Wins is rated PG-13 and is available in theaters November 17.
