‘Next Goal Wins’ Stars Michael Fassbender and Kaimana on Their Instant Chemistry and the Need For Comedy
variety.comJenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Michael Fassbender is a two-time Academy Award nominee who trained at the Drama Centre London before touring with the Oxford Stage Company; he’s performed Chekov and Shakespeare and worked a veritable who’s who of greatest living directors.
Rookie actor Kaimana had never even considered trying to be an actor, noting she avoided school plays “like the plague.” Yet the two form a winning pair in “Next Goal Wins,” the funny, touching, uplifting new film from “Jojo Rabbit” filmmaker Taika Waititi, hitting theaters Nov.
17. Based on the 2014 documentary of the same name, “Next Goal Wins” finds Fassbender playing Thomas Rongen, a coach whose anger management and alcohol issues finds him shipped off to American Samoa to lead the national football team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
He is set up to fail — the team is widely regarded as a punchline in the sport. But, fortunately, the team and its tight-knit island community have modest ambitions — they would just like to score one goal.
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