This movie was a lot of fun. A silly, uplifting sports comedy about a team of loveable underdogs, some of its plot beats can be by-the-numbers, but the film is full of laughs and heart.
American Samoa has the lowest-ranked soccer team in the world. In their history, they’ve never won a game or scored a single goal, and they hold the record for the largest international loss. In 2011, Thomas Rongen, a disgraced Dutch-American coach, discovers that coaching American Samoa’s team is the only job left open to him. The ragtag team and the surly coach, wouldn’t you know it, find out they both have something to teach each other.
Yeah, it can be clichéd. Underdog sports movies tend to have a certain formula, and this one doesn’t stray too far from those entertaining but schmaltzy roots. We have training montages and slapstick scenes of amusingly terrible game play, we have team bonding activities, and we have a heartfelt locker room speech. It’s all here. The film doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the team and the folks who surround them are a fun bunch of characters, easily handling the comedy that veers from sly to silly and then shifts into sentimental moments.
One place where the film does separate itself a little is from the particular “White Savior” genre of sports films. Thomas is ostensibly there to whip the team into shape, but the film is more about him learning to coach them in a way that works for them, rather than the group of brown people soaking up the white expert’s wisdom. The film is Thomas’s story, so his journey and growth is centered, but while the islanders have a lot to teach him, the film also sidesteps the “Magical Indigenous” tropes that commonly crop up. In fact, when it looks like Thomas is going to bail early in the movie, Tavita, the head of the Football Federation of American Samoa, gets his wife to pretend to be an old woman offering sage wisdom on the beach, on the grounds that white people eat that kind of stuff up. So it’s a bit wry and knowing, and ultimately, both Thomas and the team grow primarily through connecting with one another.
It's a solid film for Taika Waititi, and although I’d probably ranking it lower on his overall filmography, that’s mainly because he just has so many fantastic movies. The style of the film is loose and fun, and while it deals with some heavy things, its overarching message is one of optimism and community.
Michael Fassbender plays Thomas. He’s cantankerous, superior, and resentful, which puts him in a good position to be humbled and learn a little something over the course of the story. The star of the team is Jaiyah, a fa’afafine (third gender) player who clashes with Thomas and pushes back against his gruffness and disrespect. She definitely the most prominent of the players, but they all work well together as a comedy unit, if not a particularly competent soccer team! Oscar Kightley is a constant scene stealer as Tavita, and the film also features Our Flag Means Death alumni David Fane (Fang!), Rachel House (Mary Read,) Will Arnett (Calico Jack) and of course Rhys Darby (Stede!!!), along with a cameo from Waititi. Elisabeth Moss gets in on the action as well, playing Thomas’s ex.
Warnings
Language (including transphobic remarks and deadnaming, which the narrative very much frames as gross,) sexual references, drinking, and thematic elements.
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