The problem about "nice" films and "simple" films is twofold... those adjectives sound bland and uninviting, and should you rate them highly it sets expectations that can almost never be met. But this is a nice, simple film and I loved it. Some critics have had a cra k at Taika about his cheesy sense of humour. Horses for courses. I thought he pushed too hard for cheap jokes in the Thor franchise, more as the franchise continued, but this film had a lot more heart and the cheese quota fit very well. Taika has a real skill for stillness and smallness when he decides to, like in the wonderful JoJo Rabbit. In this film, his love, pride and and comfort with Polynesian culture imbues the whole work and his eye for beauty and simplicity provide an enticing serenity. There are a lot of films about underdogs that win... and a lot about washed out coaches being assigned "loser" teams. But the individual portrayal and journey can still take us somewhere new. There IS cheese... there IS corn... but that's quite welcome in certain contexts. There's a surprising number of celebrity pal cameos, lots of silliness, an emotional gut punch you don't see coming and the whole mix is enjoyably uplifting, familial and familiar. I stuck a tear and very much enjoyed this.

It was okay. Just okay. Nothing spectacular, nothing terrible either.

I think the same way _Taika Waititi_'s last movie, _Thor: Love and Thunder_ was flawed with lots and lots of cheesy often even bad jokes, _Next Goal Wins_ is flawed. If you ask me the jokes are better than in _Thor: Love and Thunder_ but still way to much.
The plot it self was a great "idea", if you can say so, as it is of course based on a true story.
The film still had a good entertainment value through it's cheesy jokes. Let's put it like this: I wasn't bored at the theatre.
Acting was okay i guess. The characters were okay as well. There was sadly no real good character development, of course [spoiler] the team's mindset and _Thomas Rongen_'s mindset in perticular were changed throughout the film [/spoiler], but I still wished for a greater/better character developement than this predictable yet fair development.
One of my biggest issues with this flick is the cinematography. I mean there there were almost only medium shots or other "normal" shots in order to convey the dialogue/whats happening. There were nearly no "establishing shots" (extreme wide shots) nor any other interesting shots it was just a really boring shot movie. If _Lachlan Milne_ was responsible for this, then I am really disappointed with his work here. If the comparatively small budget of 14 Million USD was the reason for this, the I will let it slide..

I don't want to shit talk this movie here, but these two aspects really annoyed me throughout the whole movie.
However these two aspects being bad don't mean that the whole movie is bad.
It's an "mid" movie. As I already said, nothing spectacular, nothing terrible either.
Kind of forgettable I believe.


>==My personal rating:==
-Plot (Story Arc and Plausibility): 6/10
-Attraction (Premise & Entertainment Value): 6/10
-Theme (Identity & Depth): 5/10
-Acting (Characters & Performance): 5/10
-Dialogue (Storytelling & Context): 5/10
-Cinematography (Visual Language & Lighting, Setting, and Wardrobe): 4/10
-Editing (Pace & Effects): 4.5/10
-Soundtrack (Sound Design & Film Score): 6/10
-Directing (Vision & Execution): 5/10
-The “It” Factor (One-of-a-Kind & Transcendent): 5/10

>**Overall: 5/10 || 51.5/100**

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 team playing, co-ordination and/or training - and their new boss's predilection for a bottle or two doesn't suggest change is going to come anytime soon. Local federation boss Tavita (Oscar Kightley) manages to inspire though - and what happens now is all rather predictable, but engagingly portrayed, as the team start to realise that defeat each time is not as inevitable as they might expect. It does present us with quite an interesting look at Polynesian attitudes - ones of compassion, fairness and tolerance. Winning is important, but it's not the be all and end all; and the eventual make up of their team - and it's constituent parts - is testament to a society that has way more right than it has wrong in the way it thinks and behaves. There's loads of humour - most of which comes from an on-form Kightley, but I found that a bit weak and just a little too stereotypical (albeit from their perspective rather than the American's). The best bits are probably in the trailers, but it's still just about worth a watch - but the television will be fine.

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