To me, this movie is perfection.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Blistering performances.

It's not very often I feel compelled to write a review on something I've watched, but "Next Goal Wins" is undoubtedly the BEST football themed docu-movie I have ever seen and indeed in my humble opinion one of the best movies I've ever watched. It grips you immediately from the start and is a true underdog story in every sense of the word, but this movie is much, much more than just a football documentary. It's so uplifting the way it approaches all the ideals, principles, morals and events and the hands that life deals us as you will find out upon viewing. The characters within the story are fascinating and in some cases "unusual" to say the least! If I had to make one criticism (and believe me I don't want to) it's the fact that I could have watched this easily for another hour I was that engaged by the story and the people in it and would have loved to have seen the next chapters in their lives, but to be fair to the makers of the film they got that just right as well. Simply brilliant, highly recommended to give you the feel good factor even if you're not a football fan.

The world of Football is vast; from the schoolyards of Scotland to the back-streets of Peru, it weaves its way over the Earth. It brings pain & joy. It inspires & frustrates in equal measure.We are all too aware of the riches football can bring working class kids, so much so that some are accused of playing for fortune & fame as opposed to the love of the game; well this documentary is undoubtedly about those who play for the love. In a world where the likes of Wayne Rooney & Cristiano Ronaldo are paid upwards of $450,000 a week & adidas pay Manchester United over a Billion just for the privilege of supplying their uniforms, American Samoa players remind us all why we first started playing the game.This documentary is joyous, uplifting & loving; this documentary is football.

This documentary chartering the preparations of American Samoa for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers has little to do with the beautiful game. It's a story of redemption, of solidarity, of family and community, and of believing in yourself. A true David and Goliath tale, there are further nuances that make "Next Goal Wins" stand above many other documentaries. For one, there's Saelua, a transgender woman on the American Samoan team who plays harder than her male teammates, and her wholehearted acceptance and support by everyone on the island. Then there's Thomas Rongan, the Dutch coach who volunteers to come and help prepare the team, while he continues to grieve over the death of his daughter in a car accident. I won't say anymore about the characters or what happens, but I will say that this story is truly inspiring and uplifting, and more than that, has made me question my own attitude, work ethic and beliefs in the weeks since I watched it, and I am very grateful.

Next Goal Wins is a documentary about football/soccer, which came out in the year of the Brazilian World Cup, where the greatest footballing nations in the world come together for the biggest festival of the sport in the world; at the other end of that spectrum we have American Samoa – the team famous for the 31-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of Australia in 2001. This is the story of a tiny country with a national team of amateurs who work full- time jobs around their practice sessions as they prepare for the World Cup qualifiers against a backdrop of never having won a competitive match in their history, and only having scored twice in the last 17 years.Like almost everyone else that talks about this film, I will struggle to write more than a sentence before I contrast this film with the FIFA World Cup because, although they are the same sport, they are at polar extremes to one another in terms of content. I'll also do what a lot of people have done, and reference the wonderful John Oliver bit on HBO where he tore FIFA's approach apart at a time where the corruption and lack of ability to do anything about it was also hurting how people felt about the body. Of course the World Cup was still a great success because people love the sport even if they universally hate the organizing body. This film strikes wonderfully at the nerve because it is about love of the sport, about trying despite the odds and, on a bigger scale, about people and a community.The film does have a weakness in that it knows all this and as a result it perhaps plays towards it a bit too obviously at times; structuring itself in an effective manner sure, but I could have done with a few fewer moments of music coming in and people talking about courage and such. That said, it is hard not to do this because all the things are in place here – we have great characters, a unique setting and a wonderful sense of enjoyment (which the film brings out in this way). It helps to not know anything about the end point of the film (I didn't) but in the end it doesn't really matter because it is the ride and effort that is the fun part and even if you do not care about the sport, the film wisely picks its characters so that you care about specific people and thus the whole.It is hard not to feel nervous as the team head towards another game – sometimes with the goal of just not losing too badly – and this increases as the new coach tries to pull them together. It is also hard not to be moved by the presence of transgender Jaiyah and the history made there – again, with all the headlines at the time reminding us that one of the next tournaments will be in Qatar, where Jaiyah would not find the welcome that she finds in her community, team and sport. It is hard not to be really moved at times because the film, although a bit too heavy at times, is generally very good at building all this together and putting it on the field.It is a small story and it falls so totally outside of Brazil 2014 that it can more than serve as a refreshing documentary that has a great underdog story (there is no lower) and delivers it with strong characters and a sense of joy.