Next Goal Wins Poster

Next Goal Wins (2023)

PG-13 11/16/2023 Comedy, Drama 1h 44m
64%
User
Score
6.5/10
46%
44/100

Be happy.

Overview

Dutch coach Thomas Rongen attempts the nearly impossible task of turning the American Samoa soccer team from perennial losers into winners.

Taika Waititi

Director

Iain Morris

Screenplay

Top Billed Cast

Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender

Thomas Rongen

Oscar Kightley

Oscar Kightley

Tavita

Kaimana

Kaimana

Jaiyah

David Fane

David Fane

Ace

Rachel House

Rachel House

Ruth

Beulah Koale

Beulah Koale

Daru

Taika Waititi

Taika Waititi

American Samoan Priest

Will Arnett

Will Arnett

Alex Magnussen

Elisabeth Moss

Elisabeth Moss

Gail

Full Cast & Crew →

Media

Event Review

Event Review

Winning at Life

Winning at Life

Fan Reactions

Fan Reactions

MVP

MVP

New Zealand Premiere

New Zealand Premiere

Crowd Pleasing Review

Crowd Pleasing Review

Stages Review

Stages Review

Get It Right

Get It Right

Epic Battle

Epic Battle

"Island Life" Featurett

"Island Life" Featurett

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Reviews

A review by Chris Sawin

Written on November 18, 2023

A story with all the proper beats lives here, even if the film rambles and tampers off into ridiculousness when it has no reason to. But even with its flaws and redundant humor fatigue, _Next Goal Wins_ stands out as Taika Waititi’s most coherent film since Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

**Full review:** https://bit.ly/dontpassgoal...

Read the full review on TMDb →

A review by CinemaSerf

Written on December 30, 2023

If you've seen "12 Mighty Orphans" (2021) or "The Shiny Shrimps" (2019) then you'll know what to expect as Taika Waititi takes the same template and applies it to football. Here it's the adequate Michael Fassbender who gets to portray the down on his luck coach (Thomas Rongen) in this factually based story. He's not much good at his job and is temperamentally a bit unreliable, so is dispatched to coach what is officially the world's worst team. American Samoa, still smarting from a 31-0 thumping at the hands of the ever so slightly more populated Australia, has a team whose viability is under scrutiny by the parent American Federation. Can Rongen turn things around? His team are the traditionally disparate group of well-meaning, distinctly amateur, enthusiasts. Unused to any concept of tea...

Read the full review on TMDb →

A review by r96sk

Written on January 12, 2024

The last chunk of the film saves it somewhat, prior to that <em>'Next Goal Wins'</em> is quite poor.

I like Taika Waititi and usually dig his humour a lot, but here his comedy put into the flick just isn't all that amusing annoyingly. I'm a big football fan so knew of the real life story that this is based upon, though even as such it kinda sits in the middle of being for sports fans and being for the average moviegoer... without really committing to either, at least that's how it felt to me; it's not comedic enough or sporty enough.

I found everything until the scene with a smiley face on the whiteboard to be real lame, like nothing I was watching was entertaining me... kinda cringey, if anything. A lot of the humour up to that moment felt forced, in fact the only parts that got a c...

Read the full review on TMDb →
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