Many Critics Hate Taika Waititi's New Film - Here's What They're Saying & Why

Contemporary critics aren't sure what to make of Taika Waititi right now. After surging from indie director to potential imperial mainstream auteur with the one-two punch of "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Jojo Rabbit" (the latter of which earned him an Oscar for best adapted screenplay), it seemed as though the New Zealand artist could do no wrong. And yet, while his television projects continue to impress, his reputation as a feature film director seems to be rapidly declining.

Following the mixed-to-negative reception of "Ragnarok" follow-up "Thor: Love and Thunder" in 2022, critics waited eagerly to see what Waititi would do when freed once more from the constraints of a 30-film cinematic universe with 2023's "Next Goal Wins" — the result apparently leaves a lot to be desired.

Though Looper's own Reuben Baron gave "Next Goal Wins" a score of 7.5/10 (praising its consistent sense of humor despite the predictable storyline), most critics have a passionately negative response to the film. It currently has a top critics' score of just 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, a career low for Waititi. Even more worrying for the film's prospects, specific comments from high-profile news outlets are so uniquely dismissive that they warrant consideration from audiences looking to see the movie when it debuts this November.

Vulture's Allison Willmore seemingly had a decisively negative experience screening the film at the Toronto International Film Festival, where an inauspicious curtain speech from Taika Waititi confirmed that "Next Goal Wins" would be full of his characteristically unserious and flippant sense of humor. However, it may not have prepared the critic for the sheer magnitude of Waititiness she'd soon experience. As she explains in her review — blisteringly titled "Is Taika Waititi Even Trying Anymore?" — she found every character to be a shallow "sock puppet" written to regurgitate dialogue fit for only the writer himself. Perhaps most ill-equipped for the job is star Michael Fassbender, whom Willmore describes as "maybe the most miscast actor in history" as "impossible" football coach Thomas Rongen. Willmore pins the blame for Fassbender's weak character on Waititi's inconsistent and debilitatingly idiosyncratic writing.

Esther Zuckerman addressed this issue succinctly in the opening lines of her review for IndieWire, writing, "The dominant voice [of the film] is Waititi's, to the extent that we can't hear any of the other characters. 'Next Goal Wins' is a movie that gets too wrapped up in its own quirk to develop any compelling arcs." For Polygon, Rafael Motamayor wrote that Waititi's presence on screen and on the page "often distracts from the story at hand and the more interesting characters." All three critics take umbrage with Waititi's reliance on reference humor and how this glib style further hinders clumsy attempts to engage with serious themes like alcoholism, tragedy, and transphobia. Perhaps those who enjoy Waititi's work specifically will receive the film more warmly — otherwise, it appears as though "Next Goal Wins" misses the broad net it aimed for.