Popular reviews

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  Review by David Sims ★★ 7

  pack it in mates

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  Review by the film drunk ★★½ 3

  I held strong on Taika Waititi for a while but it’s not lookin good rn

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  Review by AmandaTheJedi ★★★

  Cute!

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  Review by Matt Neglia ★★★ 3

  NEXT GOAL WINS is self-aware of the sports genre cliches & white savior stereotype it’s playing with. Taika Waititi tries to make light of them with a vibrant exaggeration of a true story designed not to be a high piece of art but to simply have fun & make audiences feel good. I was nervous about how Taika would handle the portrayal of Jaiyah Saelua, the first openly non-binary and trans woman to compete in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. But Kaimana is wonderful in a breakthrough performance that garnered the biggest cheers from the crowd even though the writing still couldn’t avoid similar pitfalls as “Green Book” fell into a few years ago. Imperfect but endearing in nearly every conceivable way. It will likely score for broad audiences.

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  Review by pipebomb ★ 9

  taika is a master at comedy movies that make you exhale out of your nose with the most stone cold face humanly possible. gotta respect his craft! how does he keep doing that? god damn, he's talented. does anybody know if he accepts Reddit Gold? this movie made me r/mademesmile.

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  Review by Ella Kemp ★★★

  Love love love the team but this is not one for Fassbender at all.  If you’re gonna see it though see it with a crowd who loves the team too!

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★★½ 2

  Great premise. Low Energy. Remember when Taika Waititi used to pack things with jokes? It's been so long.

  The soccer team is great, but they barely get any chance to shine, and Michael Fassbender is sleepwalking through this one. He's supposed to be the asshole soccer coach that's hit rock bottom... but he never comes off as more than slightly annoyed. Also, he quotes movies all the time. Now that's some hack shit.

  The big climactic game works, but it's an underdog sports movie. I'm a sucker for those.

  Go watch the doc instead.

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  Review by ram<3 ★★★★ 3

  this is my "ted lasso"

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  Review by jeffborislow ★★★★

  Nicky Salapu is my hero

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  Review by Jake Alda Coffey ★★★ 2

  After years of reshoots, waiting and release pushback, I can finally say that Next Goal Wins is… okay. Its humor is strong, which is to be expected with a Taika Waititi product. Thematically feels a bit off, with formulaic rhythm that doesn’t quite work but overall it’s an at times fun but uneven movie. 

  2023 RANKED

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★½

  TIFF 2023 #30: Special Presentations (World Premiere)

  I'm not much of a sports person, but I did follow this story for quite a bit when it was a thing because I can't help but find the circumstances behind it at the very least inspiring. And I think that just also happens to be where you feel the reach of Next Goal Wins ultimately is very limited. At times, it also feels like Taika Waititi is making a mockery of the actual circumstances within which the American Samoa team had went through before they achieved their very first goal - which seems very counterintuitive to making a story about the underdogs.

  It feels like Taika Waititi just went for the low-hanging fruit here. Disappointing especially when you're considering the work he's made in the past.

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  Review by Connor Carey ★★★

  Next Goal Wins is a little slight and far from top tier Taika Waititi, but it's the very definition of a feel-good crowd pleaser. Like, most of Waititi's films it's quite funny, full of heart, and very self aware but thankfully not in an obnoxious or off-putting way. Michael Fassbender is a perfect match for Waititi's style and trademark sense of humour and gives one of his finer performances in years. Waititi has assembled a great cast once again, all of whom are very funny and work perfectly together. Outside of Fassbender, Kaimana is without a doubt the standout of the cast and I thought they handled her arc quite well, although I expect not everyone will feel that way.…