Next Goal Wins

"Be happy."

2023 1h 44m EN

😐

6.4

MID

🥫

46%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.5

IMDB

★6.4TMDB · 616🥫46%Rotten Tomatoes●44Metacritic★6.5IMDB · 29,172

Comedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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

“Be happy.”

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Cast

Michael Fassbender
Thomas Rongen
Oscar Kightley
Tavita
Kaimana
Jaiyah
David Fane
Ace
Rachel House
Ruth
Beulah Koale
Daru
Taika Waititi
American Samoan Priest
Will Arnett
Alex Magnussen

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Taika Waititi
Writers: Iain Morris, Taika Waititi
Languages: English, Samoan
Countries: New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Samoan.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Taika Waititi, shot by Lachlan Milne. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michael Giacchino. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Nicholas Monsour shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

AWARDS

Did you know

Michael Fassbender and Oscar Kightley and Kaimana carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Be happy.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Taika Waititi directs. Lachlan Milne behind the camera. Michael Giacchino scores. Nicholas Monsour cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English, Samoan.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Samoan.
3International production across 3 countries: New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America.
4Directed by Taika Waititi, shot by Lachlan Milne. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Michael Giacchino. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Nicholas Monsour shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Michael Fassbender and Oscar Kightley and Kaimana carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Be happy.".
9IMDB entry: tt10767052 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "world cup", "based on true story", "coach", "football (soccer)".

The technical file

Cinematography: Lachlan Milne
Original score: Michael Giacchino
Editing: Nicholas Monsour
Production design: Ra Vincent
Costume design: Miyako Bellizzi
Makeup / hair: Natalie Bruce
VFX supervisor: Jason Chen
Sound: Brian Tarlecki
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $14,000,000
Box office: $18,062,279
Return: 129% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Next Goal Wins (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes: 46% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 44/100
IMDB rating: 6.5/10 · 29,172 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

1 nomination total

Also by

Taika Waititi

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Chris Sawin2023-11-18
★ 5/10
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
CinemaSerf2023-12-30
★ 6/10
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.
r96sk2024-01-12
★ 6/10
The last chunk of the film saves it somewhat, prior to that 'Next Goal Wins' 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 chuckle out of me were the white guy jokes. Michael Fassbender isn't any good up to that point, either. Thankfully, the conclusion is fairly feel-good and does wrap things up well - to the point it gets an extra notch up with my rating. As noted I found Fassbender average, at best... Liam Neeson might've been a better cast, especially given they allude to a past role of the Northern Irishman's at one moment. Away from the lead, other cast members do do decent - namely Oscar Kightley, Kaimana and David Fane. It feels a touch like the filmmakers were aiming to retread the path that opened via '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Lasso" rel="nofollow">Ted Lasso</a>'. I'm not into that television show, though safe to say it does a better job... if the similarity is a fair one on my part. '<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/bend-it-like-beckham/" rel="nofollow">Bend It Like Beckham</a>' is a shout also, but that comparison is probably me reaching in fairness.