PREMISE
The story of the infamously terrible American Samoa soccer team, known for a brutal 2001 FIFA match they lost 31-0.
THE GOOD STUFF
FASSBENDER- When I first saw the trailer of this movie I went and hit Wikipedia. I’ve learned that Michael Fassbender has been around since 2007, except for a (super duper) dark comedy called FRANK that was made in 2014. This is the only movie on his resume that is a comedy. His performance as a soccer coach with a Gordon Ramsay-level temperament is as good as given the material he has to perform. Rarely, he’s not the best part of a film that he is in, and he isn’t here really. But he does have some chops in the comedy department.
I said in my recent review of the Killer, Fassbender has been one of the best in the game for quite some time. Through the characters he’s played he has managed to cover every spectrum of the darkness of human nature. If he took a hard left turn and started doing more stuff like this… He would truly be a jack of all trades that very few actors would be comparable to.
KAIMANA- This movie’s true heart and soul is the performance of Kaimana as Jaiyah, the captain of the team and the first transgender player ever to compete in a World Cup qualifier. Respectfully, in a film filled with oddball quirky types, Jaiyah is by far the most interesting character on the screen. Not only is this the film debut of Kaimana, but I think it may be her acting debut overall based on what’s been said in the press interviews I’ve seen for this film. If that is so, then it’s all the more impressive because this should be considered one of the bigger breakout performances of 2023.
THE BAD STUFF
BITE-SIZED STORYLINES- This film wants to have its cake and eat it, too. It’s a film that wants to introduce you to interesting storylines of at least four or five characters…but does not have a decent enough running time to put any kind of gravitas to their stories. It’s a movie that portrays people who are still alive and who seem to have given notable contributions to the game of soccer…but it barely chronicles these contributions. Next goal wins is a charcuterie board of storylines.
Convention– This is a movie that hits a lot of the regular beats that underdog sports movies always tend to hit. Although that works in its favor in a couple of ways when it comes to the coach relating to the team, there are many paths that this story could have taken to go the unconventional route and it just.. didn’t.
Some cultures see soccer as a religion and almost unanimously represents a country’s cultural pride (Except for in the United states… And possibly Canada). The film only vaguely touches on what soccer means to American Samoa and how it impacts their culture. Had it done much more, this would be a much better film.
THE UGLY STUFF
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In my reviews for this website, I mention quite a bit whenever I see a movie that works better as a television show or miniseries. Usually, these films have a lot of interesting ideas that simply do not have enough time to gel within an hour and a half to two hours. This would be a pretty damn good 125-minute movie, it would be an incredible documentary, and there’s enough meat left on the bone from this film to suggest that it would be an absolutely world-class miniseries or television show.
But instead, it is a fairly enjoyable 1 hour and 40 minute movie. Â
NEXT GOAL WINS is in theaters now