Movie Review: Next Goal Wins

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A very fun feel-good sports film from Taika Waititi.

Even though I like Taika Waititi as a director, I admit that one problem he often has in his films is balancing his wacky sense of humor with the more serious moments. However, he actually does a very good job of it here. Though there are plenty of jokes throughout the film, but they never take away from its feel-good nature. Shockingly for the most part this movie knows when to have its humor more over the top and when to have it more subdued. However much of the reason this movie works is because of the characters. As over the top as they can be, we do learn to truly care about these characters. Our main character himself is very flawed but as we spend more time with him, we begin to see that he has a good heart hidden underneath all his cynicism. His character arc (while familiar) feels real and believable as we can see him growing as a person little by little over the course of the film. It is also appropriate that our main character is an outsider in the island. We meet these characters along with him and discover how the characters he meets have much more in them than is immediately apparent. Like him, we go from not believing in this team at all to thinking that they might actually be able to score a goal. This helps make this truly work as an underdog story. 

The humor for the most part works quite well. There are some true laugh out loud moments here. In fact there are quite a few of them. I was honestly surprised at just how much I laughed at many moments. This humor is rarely subtle, but it is effective. There are however other comedic moments that fall flat. The worst offenders are anything involving the priest (played by Taika Waititi himself) and the scenes with our main team and the team they must play in their first game. These scenes are not only devoid of laughs but also almost painfully unfunny. Yet the really funny moments still very much outnumber the unfunny ones. 

This film is very familiar to anyone who has ever seen one of these movies before. Because of this while the story is quite effective, it can also be incredibly predictable. 

This won't revolutionize the feel-good sports movie, but it is very entertaining.