Olga Raimondo
Taika waititi returned to the big screen just a year after Thor: Love and Thunder and four after his great success: JoJo Rabbit. His new film is now available on Disney plus, the same platform where you can see many of his works.
The director is known for having a particular, extravagant, and for some, exaggerated style with one of his characteristic traits being an actor in his own films, not as the protagonist but as a hilarious secondary character.
He has a sense of humor that can be considered almost childish though he is not stupid at all. Far from it in fact, he manages to joke and transform his characters with a lot of irony and humour, whatever the topic covered (as happened with Thor and especially with Hitler).
This time, after superheroes and black comedy, he brings us a film that recalls his land and his origins: New Zealand - the protagonist of his first films and shorts with which he made his debut.
In this case, Next Goal Wins was inspired by the real-life American Samoa national football team. In April 2001, American Samoa was defeated by Australia 31-0 at an Oceanian qualifying match for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and that was the worst defeat in the history of professional football.
Precisely following that disaster, a European coach with a career in disgrace was hired. The movie tells the story of the football team, this coach and their troubled adventure towards "victory". Victory being in quotation marks due to their dream not actually being to win the World Cup but rather to overcome fear and stereotypes. In fact, the objective was not so much to qualify but to at least score a single goal.
In addition to the already quite entertaining story, Michael Fassbender is added, who for the first time we find as the protagonist of a comedy. In actuality he is perhaps one of the very few great actors not to make this type of film but he will nevertheless manage to make you smile (and even to shed a few tears perhaps).
A light film, good for the heart and a quick 104 minutes! If you want to have a laugh, know you already appreciate the director's style (or maybe you're curious) though won't have the chance to see it on the big screen, you can actually find it now on Disney+ to stream.
