Next Goal Wins (2023)

The Anti-Lasso ("We're Just Asking That You Not Embarrass This Nation Any Further")

or

FIFA Faux Fun

 

The story behind Next Goal Wins has been told before...in the 2014 documentary also titled Next Goal Wins. The facts are all there, too. You can look it up.*

 

It's just never been told by Taika Waititi before.

 

The story of the American Samoa soccer team attempting to invigorate (hell, "hot-wire" is the better term) their club after a record-book-breaking loss of 31-0 (to Australia) by hiring a coach who'd been fired from his last three coaching positions for anger-management issues is an absurdist nightmare of reaching for the dirt, and failing your way to greatness, the sort of story they don't cover in the sports channels except for a cruel laugh-getter before breaking to the next beer or ED commercial. It's hardly an inspirational story in the Lombardi** circles of "winning is the only thing" quippage. But, it IS a story about survival and dignity and overcoming log-odds humiliation. You know, the place where the other 98% of us live.

Now, I've been seeing a lot of grumbling about Waititi on the inter-webs in anticipation of this film. My general impression from it all is that the New Zealand director has somehow worn out his welcome or gone past his "Sell By" date. Oh, the gripers still like his TV shows—"Reservation Dogs" (on Hulu) and "Our Flag Means Death" (on HBO Max...or is it just "Max" these days?) and, of course, the "What We Do in the Shadows" series (on FX)—everybody likes those, but Waititi long-form seems to make me people cranky.

 

I don't get it (but I don't "get" a lot of things on the inter-webs). 

Maybe Waititi is too "twee"—that is (by Oxford) "

excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental"—for some folks, but I would argue that Waititi takes on some pretty strong stuff in his movies (Hell-oo, Jojo Rabbit!)—and, as he works in a comedic vein, the effectiveness of his work will, also, always be subjective. Some folks have an under-developed sense of humor while some folks laugh at the the most painful of accidents. Comedians take on the burden of failure just by telling a joke. Waititi may not please everybody (and he certainly doesn't from the comments I've read), but he's also adept at horror and tragedy, frequently mixing things up and finding the absurd in everything.

And a LOT of people...especially those espousing a religious, bed-rock view of their deities...do not like that at all (Hey, I didn't like Thor: Love and Thunder, either, but I'm not going to dismiss a director for a dud***). There were just too many good things about What You Do in the Shadows, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, the afore-mentioned Jojo Rabbit, and Thor: Ragnarok, not least of which was a steadfast impudence to take the material and play with it, rather than merely pay homage.

Okay, okay. How's the film?

Funny, for the main part...despite it beginning "with incredible humiliation." The film starts—after an introduction by Waititi playing a community priest—with a recap of that terrible World Cup defeat, followed by coach Tom Rongen (Michael Fassbender) being brought before a FIFA board with the intent of doing two things: walking him through the five stages of grief, and giving him a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer—he either goes to Samoa to coach the worst team in the league...or they fire him. That two members of the board are his separated wife (Elisabeth Moss) and her current boyfriend (Will Arnett) does not help in any way, shape or form.

Reluctantly, he flies to American Samoa, where he is greeted by the President of the Football Federation American Saomoa, Tavita Taumua (Oscar Kightley), who is also a camera-man/restaurateur/manager of the hotel provided to Rongen. At this point, Rongen considers himself exiled to prison, so he is merely content to drink his troubles away. The first practice does not go well, Rongen resorting to basics, laps, sipping from his SOLO cup and stewing. Then, one of the better players, Jaiyah (Kaimana) shows up late, back from Hawaii and still after-glowing from a great trip.

Next Goal Wins has been called transphobic in some circles (a handful of reviews at the film's film festival premiere) because of this character. Put aside that this is based on a real player, Jaiyah Saelua, fa'afafine in the Samoan culture, an important figure in the sports trans community and is played by a trans actor. This smattering of reviews seem to think that the story is not about the team, but the one character. They play an important part, but are not the main focus of the story. The ultimate sin seems to be at one point, the drunken, frustrated and boorish head coach "deadnames" her to get her to focus. This is, of course, bad behavior. But, what this clutch of clutching reviewers seem to forget is that the coach—at this point in the story—is a bad guy. He's a white...Dutch (cue the colonizer music)...outsider who knows nothing about the culture and needs to be schooled. Call me cisgendered for taking that approach, but also call me a reviewer for looking at the bigger picture. I endeavor to go into a movie without preconceived notions and prejudices. I also try not to watch a movie myopically.

As it is, Jaiyah is the most winning part of the movie and is clearly more defined than the other team members, who, by this time of the movie aren't hoping to win a match...but merely to score a goal. She, to my mind, gains the audience's loyalty at that point and for the remainder of the movie. Not so, the coach. And as the token Aryan in the cast, Fassbender—not known for his comedic chops or his expressiveness—seemed to me to be channeling his inner Charlton Heston, all gritted teeth and furrowed forehead, a stranger in a strange land but determined to buffalo his way through it. And we all know what happened to the buffalo.

Look, it's good. It's funny. It does well by its subject and it will provoke a laugh or two...if you're not sensitive to being shocked into laughter now and again.**** But, then I like the New Zealander humor and brashness (Crikey!). And everybody improves their game.

Look. I'm not an apologist for Waititi. Taste is subjective as is humor. And he's doing more things right than he might be doing wrong.

 

But, here's the thing: there is a perfectly fine documentary of the story out there if you look around. It just won't be as entertaining.

Which is why we need "irritating" directors like Taika Waititi.

The actual 2014 American Samoa soccer club

* And you can watch highlights (or low-lights, depending on your POV) of it here:  

** Lombardi didn't come up with that "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" line. He stole it. From UCLA Bruins coach "Red" Sanders who'd been using it since the 1930's. Evidently plagiarism isn't the only thing, either.

*** Yeah, this is mostly a dig at Marvel fans who don't like Waititi's disrespectful treatment of the Marvel Universe, but, if any of the MCU series needed some rejuvenating sass it was the moribund "Thor" series.

Waititi's on tap to do a Star Wars movie in the future.  You have to be a brave soul to walk into that fan-boy viper's nest.

**** One bit had me laughing for a solid 3 minutes after it occurred. Did not see that coming.

Moana

Moana (Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall, Chris Williams, 2016) I missed this in the theater, and I will regret that until I have the opportunity to rectify it (which is certainly on my list of things to do). Given the evidence on the inadequate video screen on which I saw this, Moana deserves, even begs, to be seen as big as it can in order to truly appreciate the beauty of the thing and to wonder at the details of it and to be whacked upside the eyeballs with its color palette.

Why the reluctance? I'd say "Frozen burn-out" (a variation of "Freezer Burn") even though I truly enjoyed that movie and thought it did a lot of good in rectifying some inherent issues with the fabled "Princess Movie." "Been there/Done That/Let it Go." Bad mistake. Because Moana does a lot of interesting story-telling things (like bridging the gap between fairy-tale, folk-tale and myth) and expanding the magical realm to take on broader themes than just personal satisfaction—all those "I Want" songs!—and taking up the theme of stewardship and responsibility. This is Disney (under John Lasseter's mentorship), but cousin Pixar Studios was putting its toe into that same ocean with its short, "Lava," released in 2014.

One may assume they were checking each other's work. Moana challenges and occasionally tops the photo-realism that was being attempted in "Lava," but pops with more detail and texture. One can argue the efficacy of making everything picture-postcard-perfect,* but one can't be anything but amazed at such imagery in motion. CGI can make magic realistic, but it very rarely makes it the visual poetry that Moana accomplishes.

The story starts a bit traditionally mixing the "Princess" mythology with "The Hero's Quest." We get a preamble of "what went wrong" when the shape-shifting (and vain-glorious) demi-god Maui (voiced eventually by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) sought to possess the pounumo stone, the heart of the mother island Te Fiti, with which she could create life from the oceans. Attaining the stone, Te Fiti collapses and Maui is attacked by the volcano-demon Te-Ka, who knocks him out of the sky, breaking his magical fish-hook and sending the stone into the depths of the sea. Legend has it that powerful forces still search for the stone that might still restore Te Fiti before the dark times befall the islands, unless a chosen warrior can find the heart, and travel past the island's reef, and convince Maui to restore the stone to its rightful place.

Cue Moana, who, if we're to believe the opening has been chosen by the sea to be that warrior, even if her parents, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison) and Sina (Nicole Scherzinger), choose to ignore the signs and insist the their daughter stay at home and learn how to be the next chief. They're also ignoring the signs of blight on the island, ruining the crops and shrinking the fish-catches. Moana's already thinking ahead, arguing with her father to take their nets beyond the reef, and is determined to show him she's right by taking a skiff out herself, only to to be scuttled, her boat destroyed and her nearly drowning in the attempt. Her parents forbid her from ever taking another boat out into the ocean again. What's the Ma'ori word for "grounded?"

But, Moana's grandmother Tala (the amazing Rachel House) doesn't discourage her. She tells Moana the story of Maui and Te Fiti and leads her to a cave that houses the boats that originally brought her people to the island and how the demi-god's actions caused the oceans to turn against her people and never again leave the island. She gives her the "heart" stone and points to a hook in the stars, telling Moana to follow them to find Maui. Moana goes back to the cavern and takes one of the boats and heads out to sea to accomplish the task of saving the island and her people.

After a terrifying journey, guided by the spirit of her grandmother, Moana's craft capsizes in a storm and she and the craft are washed ashore on the island. But, hook drawings on the rocks assure her that she has actually reached the island where Maui, having lost the hook that allows him to shape-shift, has been stranded for a thousand years. Maui, understandably, is glad to see her—she has a boat; he can get off the island. Moana tells her of her plan but he won't have any of it; he's a demi-god, after all, and he's used to doing what he wants to do, and not taking orders from natives. Praying to him might help, but being out of activity for so long he's more than likely to ignore her.

Much bickering, much attitude. Moana thinks he's a jerk; he thinks she's ungrateful. Finally, he just takes her boat and leaves her stuck in a cave while he sails off. But, he's just a demi-god, and Moana has a powerful ally in the ocean, which is only too happy to deposit Moana back on the boat no matter how hard Maui can throw her off of it. He tries to throw the heart away. The ocean throws it back. He jumps overboard and starts swimming. Not for long before he's thrown back onto the boat. He's fighting a losing battle and he, understandably, does want to take on another one, liking returning the heart back to its source and confronting Ta Ka.

Despite it being a Disney movie, the course of those never run smoothly, and, besides the two sailors wanting to go in different directions, they have to deal with Kakamora pirates, regaining Maui's hook from a monster crustacean named Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement), and then, and only then, with Maui's powers intact, maybe taking on Te Ka, so that Moana can return the heart to Te Fiti—if it were only that easy. Oh, yeah, and there's a crazy chicken that keeps getting in the way. What would a Disney princess by without a "familiar?"

The songs are less traditional, more snappy with more patter, more rhythm and less melody, as they're crafted by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and, although the film is free of Broadway/Vegas showstoppers, they bounce along, don't outwear their welcome, and never impede the narrative. The animation department also compensates by ramping up the speed during those moments. The film never drags, although there are times the visuals are so gorgeous that you want to hang just a little bit longer.

It's also a solid story, combining folklore, anthropology, sociology, ecology, and fairy tale and myth. Tall order for a cartoon. Everything is hitting all cylinders and a joke never falls flat. Nor did the animation skimp on the scenery for the characters and vice versa. Vistas are photo-realistic (or better), and the expressions are rubbery and recognizable as human beings'. 

It all works amazingly well, enchanting entertainment for young and old alike. It's just that I wish I could have seen it on a big screen where all the amazing handiwork could be appreciated in all its glory. We'll make it a life-goal.

*

Soul

Pixar When It's Jazzing

or

"I am the coming together of all quantized fields of the universe. Appearing in a form your feeble human brain can comprehend. You can call me Jerry."

I freely admit that I should have seen Soul in a theater—I've seen every other Pixar movie on the big screen and I freely admit that the presentation-medium usually informs the reviews of those films. There's something about the detail work of Pixar's movies that pop more on a big screen. I had to watch this at home, though. Disney took the choice away from me, and I will admit it made me a little bitter. I say this because not seeing it all big-and-large, a couple millimeters to a pixel, might prejudice my review a bit.

But just a bit.

Soul did not move me to tears as other Pixar films have in the past. Its suppositions on the inner life of humans skews a bit in the same territory as Inside Out. Its designs seem to spend a great deal of time in the easily-rendered nebulous, and its points of view on "purpose" and "spark" may be too subtle for some who have not reached a certain age—you know, actually lived a life of varying degrees of success and/or satisfaction. All of this is in comparison of Soul to the rich history of Pixar and its output, which is without a doubt the most artistically and financially successful production studio out there. Most souls would shrivel up and die held against such a standard.

But, seen on its own, without (or even because of) that rich legacy, Soul is still a remarkable film of humorous dexterity and sophisticated conceptualization. And humor...plenty of that. And their continuing forays into multi-culturalism (necessitated once they run out of subjects that hid the limitations of digital animation in its early days-and they decided to combat the "uncanny valley" by leaping over it in artistic bounds) has not only made their films richer—well, naturally—but also counter-intuitively more universal.

It's also left it open to sniping from critics of certain sensitivities (and prejudices) who can't see the forest for the trees—attacking some aspect while ignoring the bigger themes of the picture. It's a bit like attacking Finding Nemo because "fish don't act like that" when the story is about "letting go." How did they survive watching Ratatouille when rats were cooking in a restaurant? 

It is the best day in the life of Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a band-teacher suffering through a class with limitless room for advancement.* There's one promising saxophonist, but that's it. The next quarter is going to be an endless stream of clams and sharps and lagging. So, it seems like too much of a good thing when he's told he's been hired to teach band full-time, complete with insurance package. But, it's clear that his heart is in playing jazz professionally. That's why he jumps at the chance (provided by a former student) to audition for the Dorothea Williams Quartet (she's voiced by Angela Bassett). He sails through the audition and is told to get a "good" suit and be back at the club at 6:30.

Joe's heart is soaring. Which is probably why he falls through an open man-hole and dies. Well, not quite. But, when his awareness kicks in he's on the fabled staircase, if not to Heaven then to "The Light." This is one escalator he wants to jump off, and in so doing, finds himself somewhere not-so-fabled. It's not "the Great Beyond" he's informed, but "The Great Before," where souls go to be indoctrinated into their apparent personalities, and become mentored so they can achieve the little merit badges needed to go to Earth.

Joe, however, is not where he's supposed to be. He's not on his way to the After-life, he's in the Before-Life, which makes the After-Life hell for a counter named Terry (Rachel House, deliriously idiosyncratic, as always), who finds the count is off. Rather than write it off as "shrinkage" Terry begins an investigation, while "Before" counselors (all named "Jerry" and voiced by Alice Braga, Richard Ayoada, Fortune Feimster, Zenobia Shroff, and Wes Studi) cover his tracks by giving him a job as a "last-ditch" mentor to a troublesome soul.

How many souls have there been? Trillions? Well, this one's a problem and has been a long time. This soul's name is "22" (voiced by Tina Fey—"How come you sound like a middle-aged white lady?" Joe asks it. "I just use this voice because it annoys people," it replies) and she has had the Best and the Brightest of mentors throughout history.** All failed—even Mother Theresa ("I have compassion for every soul...Except you. I don't like you.") and 22 just does not want to take the next step to live, despite Joe's best efforts. That next step—it's more like a prat-fall—is when the two souls accidentally fall to Earth, while viewing Joe in the hospital, and get into the adventure trope of "switching psyche's"—walking in someone else's shoes.

If the "Great Before" were a TV show, we've already seen that...countless times. But, Soul makes it fresh, fast, funny, and the most entertaining part of the film. There is a lot of "concepting" going on, with talk of "The Great Before" and "The Zone" and "Lost Souls" and philosophical/psychological concepts dealt with in cartoon-graphic terms—"this whole place is a hypothetical..." 22 finally just admits—and sometimes, the grasping at ideas is a little thin. But, once it starts getting down to Earth, the film is much more on solid ground, comedically and spiritually.

And it's beautiful, especially when it's out of the pastel, cotton-candy landscapes of the "hypothetical," and back in Pixar's "Real World" (I've included a bunch of screen caps below ***) that take your breath away. Pixar's renderers always seem to advance the bar with every new film and here, the results are astounding; the film is full of pieces of art that you just want to frame, made even more incredible for the realism in their movement. 

One wants to say that it's a step-back. But it isn't. It's another well of imagination the overflows and inspires. 

Joe "in the zone"

* The very first joke of the movie is a terrible, amateurish version of "When You Wish Upon a Star" over the opening Disney logo. It's hilarious, off-putting (because you don't know what or why), and wonderfully tweaks their corporate overlords. I love Pixar...

** 

22's wall of past mentors--a couple of them are Pixar creators who have passed, and Jack Kirby's in there, too!

***