Next Goal Wins – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Taika Waititi
Writers – Taika Waititi, Iain Morris
Stars – Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana

The film centres on the American Samoan soccer team.  The team holds the record for the worst defeat in World Cup qualifiers when they lost 31- 0 to Australia in 2001.  The film concentrates on its assault on the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup. Their endeavours were recorded in a documentary entitled ‘Next Goal Wins’ by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison. Now Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit 2019) has come forward with a full-length feature film of the same title.

Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), a Dutch American football coach, whose career is on a downward path, is dispatched to American Samoa to motivate their soccer team. It transpires he has a myriad of problems of his own, including depression and alcohol. He has an extremely short fuse. The team members are of diverse appearance and have limited ambitions and skills. They want to score a single goal. So this is a story of the underdog and naturally, everyone wants to support an underdog.

The members of the team are a motley crew but one team member Jaiyah Saelua (Kaimana) is trans and is the first trans player to compete in a World Cup. However, this epoch-making fact makes little impact on the storyline as the plot concentrates on Rongen and his problems which also include his ex-wife and her new husband. It is described as a sports comedy but the humour is somewhat lopsided as it concentrates on the overall inadequacies of the Samoans and condescension to the Samoans is barely held in check. Consequently, the comic aspects of the film, where the Samoans are for the most part portrayed as if they are a charming but simple people, are not for the most particularly funny.

Waititi himself plays an American Samoan priest who kicks the story off as a sort of narrator. Fassbender does not convince as Rongen and it is likely that this role will not feature highly on his list of achievements. Kaimana is impressive as Jaiyah but it is a small part. Emphasising the role of Jaiyah might have brought a more thoughtful appreciation of American Samoans and its citizens to the storyline. Despite its noble ambitions of highlighting the plight of a sporting underdog, the film was meant to be a comedy and unfortunately, it failed in this task.