Waititi’s biographical comedy sweet, but film no knee slide
In “Next Goal Wins,” a soccer coach comes from far away to lead a hapless group of athletes. He’s a fish-out-of-water type, ill-suited for the job, but rises to the occasion and everyone feels good at the end. “Wait,” you’re thinking, “that’s the plot of ‘Ted Lasso.’ ” Well, only kind of.
Writer-director Taika Waititi — the slightly unhinged mind behind “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Jojo Rabbit” — offers a sports movie that’s not, of course, a sports movie and the opposite of whatever Jason Sudeikis was doing on his TV series.
Inspired by true events, “Next Goal Wins” stars Michael Fassbender as a bitter Dutch American soccer coach assigned to help the struggling American Samoa national team qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The team is an international laughing stock and still stinging from having been on the wrong side of the worst loss in international soccer history — a 31-0 thrashing by Australia in 2001.
Waititi and co-writer Iain Morris based their movie on a 2014 British documentary of the same name, and you can tell why
Waititi gravitated toward the story. It offers a clash of civilizations, the theme of overcoming loss and a beautiful lesson about embracing those who are different.
In Waititi’s hands, it becomes a sloppy, quirky comedy that gently apes other underdog sports movies but doesn’t offer much but a mildly funny respite from reality. It makes “Bend It Like Beckham” seem deep. Waititi himself frames the film in the first minutes by playing a priest on American Samoa who promises this will not be a tale of woe but “a tale of whoa!”
Fassbender here is the opposite of Lasso — he’s egotistical and unyielding, a coach fired from his last three teams and given a career lifeline no one wants. He has no homespun wisdom to offer, just routine high school bullying. “Something’s not right about that guy,” says one islander. “Well,” comes the response, “he is white.”
The coach will eventually be redeemed by American Samoa itself, by the nobility of its people and the goodness of their souls, with the movie getting dangerously close to wornout film cliché territory.
The script had an opportunity to examine the demand of winning at all costs versus the rewards of merely having fun, but abandons any lessons in a flurry of team-building montages.
This being a Waititi movie, there’s a scattershot of pop culture references — “Karate Kid,” “Taken,” “The Matrix,” “Any Given Sunday” and even Frank Sinatra. These seem more like the director’s idiosyncrasies than plot movers.
“Next Goal Wins” is most winning in the way it handles the team’s star player, Jaiyah Saelua, who became the first nonbinary player to compete in a men’s FIFA qualifier. Played with real tenderness by nonbinary actor Kaimana, the way the team and coach relate to Saelua is genuine and touching.
There are other nice turns by Oscar Kightley, Will Arnett and Elisabeth Moss, but it’s Fassbender who must do the bulk of the lifting here. He may initially not have been on the top of everyone’s list for the part, but he sticks the landing. “Next Goal Wins” isn’t a tale of “woe” or “whoa!” but “meh.”
MPA rating: PG-13 (for some strong language and crude material)
Running time: 1:43
How to watch: In theaters