Next Goal Wins
SEARCHLIGHTTo start this review means to go on and to get to the point: Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins is an unequivocal disaster. For a director who has had a meteoric rise from independent cinema, academy award recognition, four successful tv projects in multiple seasons, mainstream success with the revival of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and a potential Star Wars project on its way, where could it all go wrong? Ego, for starters. Waititi found success in punching up from his independent roots and dismantling and disobeying the playing field of his contemporaries. Now that he’s at that very level of contemporary success and notoriety, the punching up echoes dire sentiments of egotistical nature and lack of awareness with an awkwardness. Ideals that have undeniably seeped into his cinematic fortay into Jojo Rabbit and now Next Goal Wins. The latter of which is based of the true story of a Samoan soccer team which languished at the bottom of international recognition of success and achievement with very little economic or forward planning from FIFA. The story of these events were then brought to worldwide attention by documentaries Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, who travelled and explored the resulting events that transpired. It’s important to acknowledge said documentary in context of Waititi’s film as while they cover the same events the tone, poignancy and impact could not be all the more different and divisive.
One of the greatest fundamental problems Next Goal Wins has is depiction. Brett and Jamison’s documentary is a profound experience, not only of human spirit but in poignancy to accept and to love others and oneself in the face of failure or rejection. Waititi takes these moments, lessons, and themes and utterly destroys them with dire, problematic, and insensitive execution. Just to make this abundantly clear: said elements are not without comedic embellishment if done correctly and with poignancy and nuance. Waititi is so off kilter here it actually comes off offensive, not only to the audience but horrifyingly disrespectful on the real people the director basis his own tones off.
There are two major stumbling blocks here in which Waititi’s film goes way too far. The first is the tone of the islands and, thus, characters’ tone. The second is the trans character – and real person – of Jaiyah. Starting simpler with the former, the documentary of Next Goal Wins clearly shows this scenario and people who are of poignant, genuine, and mature intelligence, a people who have suffered from a mass tsunami which killed a few years beforehand. They are a proud people who want to better themselves in the sport they have as outlet and not to be seen as comedic spectacle. This is the exact opposite of how Waititi exhibits said islanders, with a dumbed down and almost patronising level of malevolence. If they’re not almost a hundred years behind in technology, they’re just silly. Granted, self-referential humour is not above board, but this is all just so cheap and without a punch of imagination; it’s actually shocking this is the same creator of What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilder People. Truly shocking to even think it’s the same creative type that, with every decision in this venture, created the most simplistic and narrow minded result imaginable. With how lethargic its comedic underbelly is, it should come to no surprise that Next Goal Wins is painfully unfunny and retorts to mocking and a laugh-at-them type mentality.
The second issue here is Waititi’s framing of trans character and real life person Jaiyah Saelua. Saelua is the first openly transgender player to take part in international football recognised by FIFA. This is massive. Not only is this unprecedented but, for major leagues all over the world yet to have one recognisable queer player in the men’s game, such imagery and participation as well as acknowledgment of how big of what an achievement Jaiyah has done should be treated with esteem. It is so in Mike Brett and Steve Jamison’s documentary, not so much in Waititi’s film. Jaiyah is tragically and almost unbelievably used as a scapegoat for Fassbenders’ Thomas Rongen inability to recognise Jaiyah as a person and for said characters transphobia. Yes, you read that right, Waititi uses the character for nothing more than a story arc of another character being a transphobe. How appealing. The knock on effect for this arc is incredibly damaging. The real life Rongen, who is incredibly passionate and affectionate towards Jaiyah and her story, is not transphobic whatsoever in the media shown beforehand. In this day and age of fake news, outrage culture and cancellation, to attempt to purposefully use a real life person with these qualities is not only slander but career ruining; it is appalling that Waititi and Co have managed to get away with this. Made worse is that it makes Jaiyah a victim of prejudice and hatred from a person and community that accepts and loves her. It’s scandalous and results of such a limited and narrow minded character story arc, which doesn’t let Jaiyah and her story flourish and evolve into the acceptance she has seen beforehand. It results in her fighting for the right to be who she is, which very well is a story that many trans people face, but within the context of Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, has no place and feels fiercely deceptive and patronising. Stair’s arc isn’t even remotely fullfilling either due to the terrible on-the-nose and flat writing but equally by the performance of Fassbender, who is embarrassingly miscast here not only in terms of comedic sensikbuty but in his dramatics. Fassbender’s character, like the real life Thomas Rongen, is driven - almost silently by the premature death of his daughter, which is used pivotal in two scenes in the documentary and feature film. Used very simplistic but in differing emotional beats. They both work, but it coming from the mouth of the real Rangen is just realising that this is a little bigger than a football match makes for more empowering viewing. Waititi’s vehicle regulates info to a prelude team talk game and doesn’t quite have that same momentum and emotive power. Equally, it is the only scene of which Fassbender nails, as otherwise his emotive prowess and ability are severely lacking. His humour does not cocincide with Waititi’s nor of what’s on the page and his duck out of water character is once again scrapping the barrel of originality and therefore engagement.
There is, quite ironically, very little to say about the filmmaking skill here and while Waititi has never been a cinematic rich creator and visionary, he has at least crafted film with engaging composition and framing – almost like lite version of Wes Anderson, which is a sentiment that followed the director in the innocence of his career. Next Goal Wins shows absolutely no visual cinematic or thematic appeal in any frame shown on screen. It has zero amount of filmmaking quality in terms of editing or composition, and to shoot such a rich life of this island in the manner he does genuinely showcases how little talent the once-emerging director truly has and his appalling lack of visual prowess. That being said, to land on one final complaint – of which is perhaps the most poignant and devastating – is that cinema and its inhabitants have screamed for better and accurate representation for decades and, seemingly, this is an attribute that is moving forward in the betterment of this issue. Alas, for Taika Waititi – an indigenous person from New Zealand who understand the plight of these people and their story – to come aboard this project and make an utter mockery of its occupants and predicament is such a major disappointment and disservice to these people of representation and response. Because whoever sees this venture without the context of the documentary walks away with Thomas Rongen being a transphobe, Jaiyah not being accepted by her peers and surrounding team mates, and that everyone from American Samoa is a bumbling idiot; if that’s the intended approach, why not just get any average comedic director in Hollywood like Jay Roach, Todd Phillips, or Judd Apatow to do an equally disservice to this story? As the end result from Waititi’s feature takes a horrid step back on a multitude of levels that make Next Goal Wins an appalling and tragic adaptation.
