Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, hello and welcome back. You can't tell I've almost cut my voice back. It sounds a lot better today than it did yesterday, that is for sure. But that's what garbling some warm salt water and letting my voice take a long reprieve, as in a good night's sleep. So I am back. You probably weren't wondering if I was really gonna come back or not. And yet here I am. Quincy. Stop it, Quinn. Once again, my kitties are in here with me and making life very interesting, particularly little Quincy tonight. He is.
[00:00:38] Oh, I keep saying tonight. The sun's not even up yet, but yes, it is. Good morning. Hi. I'm the deputy of movie deputy reviews here to bring you yet another movie review. And you're probably thinking, okay, what's she going to do this week and what can she really do that's going to beat out Super Bowl Sunday? I mean, the game is tomorrow already and I'm just like going, okay, I'm not a huge football fan at all. My grandfather was very involved with the game and very involved with the fundamentals of the game. So I understand football, but that does not mean that I like it. So if you're expecting a call or the whole thing from me of whether or not I'm a Chiefs or a 49 ers fan, sorry. Honestly, you're probably going to be disappointed. And prior to popular belief, I'm not actually a swifty either. So yeah, I'm not going to be following any part of this game until it's over. And then I will turn online only just to check out the commercials because honestly, to me that's the only part of the Super bowl worth watching, is the commercials. But I don't want to sit through the whole game just to see it. And I thought since we are the day before Super Bowl Sunday, wow, that's just a mind boggling to think of that I'd bring to you a sports movie. Now, this movie did come out in December, so it's maybe a little bit older, but it's not too old yet. And I don't know if you've been following along that you might know what movie we're talking about since there's not a lot of sports movies coming out right now.
[00:02:15] Well, this one is called next goal wins. It is a story about American Samoa and their football team, which is what we would know as soccer. And they're a us territory. So it's like soccer and it's football. It's kind of all in the same thing, but they were the, in 2011, they were the worst ranked team on the planet. I'm not even exaggerating that in the least. They were literally the worst ranking team on the planet.
[00:02:48] As one coach had kind of dropped the ball back in the United States here, his punishment was either to retire or to head down and try to coach this team. But this team is just a ragtag bunch of misfits. And I'm going to actually stop right there before I get too much into this. You know me. No spoilers, but this is definitely not a movie that you're going to want to take your kids to. There are some really heavy themes that are being dealt with in this story, and I'm going to touch on that here in just a minute. But like I said, this one, if you're looking for just another sports movie with a happy ending, this may not be the story you're looking for. And don't worry, I'm not giving any spoilers there, but there are going to be people that this is the story that they're looking for. Now, as I've kind of addressed the content stuff a little bit already, this is not a movie for kids. This is not a movie for young children at all. Now, if you disagree and you want to let your kids watch it, I mean, more power to you. But for the people that appreciate that I give these things out there and that I do give this a guilty rating, you'll appreciate why I'm going to be giving it a guilty rating. And I had to actually go so far as to kind of look up stuff. I'm like, okay, did they do this just for Hollywood or was there more to this? Was some of this stuff actually going on? And some of the things I'm going to be talking about actually did happen in this movie. Now, like I said, take it with a grain of salt. And like I said, I'm going to give some of the more controversial stuff away, but I'm not going to say how it's done. So don't worry, it's not anywhere close to a spoiler. One of the biggest topics that is addressed in this story is that there is a trans individual on the team. He was born Johnny, but he plays as Jaya. That's the name that they choose to go by in this story. And so she's taking hormone. Jaya is taking hormones and everything that goes along with that to become the person that she feels like that she is or he is or however you want to look at that. And I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for that.
[00:05:15] But it's just, yeah, they deal with that. Surprisingly, there's only one f bomb in the entire movie, but there is other language that is used in this movie. And there's also some really sketchy type content of just things that just shouldn't be done, drunk driving, just things that are just adult references, things like that. Like I said, this is not a movie for young kids.
[00:05:46] You may be wondering, okay, why is she choosing to bring this to us on the day before Super Bowl Sunday? Well, I'm thinking, okay, of all the movies that I've watched recently, of the ones that I'm going to be bringing you this next week, and the reviews, I was like, okay, I had to kind of go back a little bit. I'm like, okay, for this weekend, I need a movie that has something to do with sports. I mean, just kind of the whole playing into the. But even if you're not into sports yourself, it just kind of goes along with the whole weekend. I mean, this weekend is crazy.
[00:06:18] Stores are already being just overwhelmed. That has nothing to do with the movie. So I got to get back on track here. It's just life happens.
[00:06:25] And also, there's some other things in this movie of almost versions of sacrilege for people who are strong in their faith, for people who are very sensitive to certain terms being used and certain things, blasphemies that are taking place. Also, this is not going to be a movie for you either.
[00:06:49] So American Samoa was literally, like I said, the worst ranked team on the planet at one time. So he goes down there and he tries to kind of put together pieces of what was the team and put together with these new pieces. And being that he's been a coach of this type of team for a long time, he knows what to look for.
[00:07:11] He sees things in people that they don't see in themselves.
[00:07:15] But is that enough? And that's kind of how this plays out. Like I said, this isn't going to be the proverbial happy ending you might expect, but that doesn't mean that it's not a happy ending, just in a different way. So if you are looking for a pick me up movie, this might not be for you. There's a lot of really difficult topics dealt with here. And like I said, there's ones I'm not even going into because I would have to give away part of the story. Stormy, you cannot step on mommy's keyboard.
[00:07:46] Sorry. The joys of kitty cats. And as always, they've been taking advantage of their one fast cat wheel that's in the living room. I don't know if you could hear that at the beginning of the recording, but one of them was running on it here in the living room, which they love. And of course, I had to give them another shout out. But back to the movie. You're probably wondering what I gave this on the deputy scale. And this one was hard, I'll be honest. This one was a hard one to really rate it and keep it within the confines of the deputy scale and the content and just kind of how it deals with everything. Now, this is one trying to think how I want to put this, because if I say it the way that was initially in my brain, that would be technically a borderline spoiler, and I don't want to do that. So forgive the pause there, but this is a story that really.
[00:08:43] I don't want to use the term underdogs because I think that term is overly used too much. But I'm really struggling to find the right term for this. But it's along that same lines. And just like I said, it's not the happy ending that you might expect, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't leave on a good note.
[00:09:02] Like I said, again, you're probably wondering what I gave it on the deputy scale.
[00:09:06] I've really been struggling because personally, when I was done watching this, I was very underwhelmed.
[00:09:15] On a personal level, I would probably give it upper threes, low fours.
[00:09:22] From a critic level, I could see it being easily in the sixes, just if I focus purely on only, like, the critique level of looking at this.
[00:09:34] But even for me, that's hard sometimes. And so you're probably wondering where I ended up on this. Well, I did end up on next goal wins with a 5.75 out of ten. Now, you may be going, oh, that's underwhelming. But like I said, if you are into these types of sports, if you have ever been a fan of American Samoa in anything, travel or anything along with that, and I do want to make it a note, and this is just an important note in the whole idea of american smoke. It doesn't really have anything to do with the story itself. Well, it does, but it doesn't.
[00:10:11] Remember when Moana came out and Jason Momoas. Right. My brain went blank there for a second. And the rock and all these other guys with Aquaman and all these other things have done these haka dances which are traditional to American Samoa and the Pacific islands, things like that. And they do that at multiple times in this movie. So if you were looking for very cultural enrichment type movies, this one does satisfy on that category. But like I said, I did only give it a 5.75 out of ten on the deputy scale. And of course, with the guilty rating. So has this encouraged you of making you want to see this movie? Or is this one of those ones where you're glad that I just gave you just enough information, but you're probably going to pass on this one? Or who knows? Maybe you've already seen it and this is one of your favorite movies and you're thinking, she's completely off of a rocker. Well, you know what? Guess what? You're free to think that if you want, but I'm hoping that this at least helps somebody out there. And I always say, feel free to reach out to me if you disagree or if you agree with me. I like the feedback either way. But it's always nice knowing when I've had an impact on something. But of course, I am not going to be here tomorrow, but I will be back on Monday with a movie review for something that is aimed at children, but not necessarily your typical children's movie. Is that going to give you any hint of the one I'm talking about? You'll have to wait and see. But until then, I'm signing off for now. Have a wonderful weekend, whether you're a sports fan or not. And of course, I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
