I might be the only Dutch guy who doesn’t like soccer.
However, I do love movies, Taika Waititi and Michael Fassbender, so I’ve really been looking forward to watching Next Goal Wins (2023).
NGW tells the true story of soccer coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) who is more or less “exiled” to American Samoa to train the worst team in the league.
The people who pretend to objectively know which films are good and which ones are bad have not been kind to NGW, but since I’ve stopped caring about the opinions of critics a long time ago, I went into Waititi’s latest the way I go into ANY film – with a completely open mind.
I’ve become somewhat of a Waititi connoisseur over the last decade or so. After first discovering the kooky Kiwi in What We Do in the Shadows (2014), I ferociously tracked down all of the iconoclastic cineast’s output. And although it sometimes feels like Waititi is in almost everything these days, finding a way to watch his wonderful early films Eagle vs Shark (2007) and Boy (2010) certainly wasn’t easy.
If you don’t mind secondhand DVDs from an outlet like eBay, I highly recommend ordering these little gems online.
(Read my thoughts on EvS here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/screen-addict-eagle-vs-shark-robin-logjes-xzaxc/?trackingId=DfY3UqqcQ86bTpbaCzgp5g%3D%3D)
NGW is not your typical rousing sports-movie about a down-on-its-luck team that defies expectations with the help of a reluctant coach. In fact, it’s pretty much the exact opposite of that and that is precisely why I love it.
Waititi carefully sidesteps every feasible cliche without sacrificing the emotional element. The opening sequence quickly and hilariously dismisses Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief as if to say: “let’s get on with it already.” The film even goes so far as to quite brutally malign and ridicule Al Pacino’s awesome speech from Any Given Sunday (1999) – pretty much the gold standard of sports movies – but somehow totally gets away with it.
Fassbender is magnificent as always, but the true delight for me here was Kaimana Solai, who plays transgender team captain Jaiyah. Fiery, sexy and completely genuine.
Waititi’s obligatory cameo is obviously in there as well, and that is perhaps the only point of criticism I can muster. Not because I didn’t like the part, but because the character simply isn’t in enough scenes.
Again – I don’t believe a film (or any other work of art) can or should be judged as being objectively good or bad. But if you’re gonna write about movies, it just makes a lot more sense to write about the ones you loved.
Thinking is difficult, that is why most people judge.
I say be curious, not judgmental.
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Twitter (X): Robin Logjes | The Screen Addict