Next Goal Wins Review - Taika Waititi's Quirky Touch To American Samoa's Historic Moments

Next Goal Wins Review: Taika Waititi's comic sports drama Next Goal Wins is based on the documentary of the same name that tells the story of the American Samoa national football team. Waititi is known for his quirky comedies, but this time, he added some absurdly funny humour to the sport that's globally loved. I might connect it to the Spanish flick Campeones for the patterns it follows, but again, it's a different story altogether. We saw a bunch of abnormal humans teaching the coach to be a human, and here we see some hopeless losers teaching their coach to be happy. The message and the pattern are quite similar in both films, but the story differs. Next Goal Wins is too funny sometimes, too absurd, and too illogical. A sports drama based on true events can't be this dramatic and overly comedic. Taika sets it loose and free to have some fun, but the film does not run in a straight line. That's the only problem here; otherwise, we have plenty to humour you and put your cheeks on the job.The film begins with the most embarrassing defeat in football history as American Samoa loses the match by 31-0. They couldn't even score "one goal." That one goal is what forms the ambitions for the team's future, and they get a new coach. The Dutch American football coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is forced to accept the almost impossible task of building the American Samoa national team, considered one of the weakest football teams in the world (rank 204), into a decent squad, or else he will be fired. The hidden motive is to let Thomas realise what happiness is and get friendly with people since he has been constantly in depression due to a personal loss. But would that help? Well, Thomas arrives in American Samoa and trains the hopeless football team to compete in a World Cup qualifier game. Throughout this journey, he learns something, they learn something, and together they achieve what they were set out to do.Based on Mike Brett and Steve Jamison's British documentary, Next Goal Wins isn't that inspiring as a film, but it definitely serves its purpose for the American Samoa people. It's their story, so they are bound to like it, while others may not feel attached to it much since the universal appeal isn't that wide. Taika Waititi and Iain Morris make sure that the screenplay doesn't drag, but yes, a few—a very few—scenes did feel boring and unnecessary. Coming back to the overdramatized portion, Tavita's speeches and those childish actions on the field were really annoying. One can feel that it's intentional and is put there only to make you laugh. You are not that dumb not to realise that, right? Yes, it's okay to see some scenes out of context only because they are trying to make the comedy work, and so I did, but it won't work every time. Nevertheless, the entire narrative was decently presented, unlike any crap you have seen in this genre in the last decade.Michael Fassbender enters the picture with that bearded look, and it took me a minute to recognise him, and his voice really helped me. Soon, he gets into a clean-shaven look (I was expecting that anyway) and gets back in form too. However, it is a fun character, so there are limits to it, unlike the character-driven roles Michael has done before and in recent times. Some scenes are flawed, but overall, he was fairly good. Oscar Kightley can be called the funniest person in the entire movie, despite that local accent bodying some of his humour down. Kaimana has been presented to look hot so that the transgender/faʻafafine term would be crystal clear to the audience, and they have somewhat succeeded in that. David Fane, Rachel House, Will Arnett, Beulah Koale, Uli Latukefu, Elisabeth Moss, and a big bunch of supporting actors and team players fill their places according to requirements.Next Goal Wins did not look like a big-budget film anyway, and since they didn't even require any such design, what we see on screen is adorably simple. Samoa's culture, food, traditions, language, jobs, and religiosity—everything is captured very well. With a runtime of a little over 90 minutes (excluding credits), Nicholas Monsour gives a sharp edit to the film. A few hiccups here and there, that's all. Nothing worrisome. The cinematography and the background score were decent. I don't know why all that action on the field is not that exciting for football lovers. Maybe it's because we have seen a lot by now. More than anybody else, this is Taika Waititi's film, I believe. You can sense that in many scenes where you see humour overtaking the emotional quotient or the dramatic value of that scene. Taika has done it with a superhero film, with a World War II film, and now he does it with a sports drama. The problem is that it doesn't fit that well here. It's a limitation of this genre because some true stories just don't require cinematic themes. Yet, Waititi keeps you hooked on the screen and entertains you enough to leave the auditorium without any headache. That's good enough for "One Goal," I guess. In short, it has enough kicks but no defence.