Messi’s World Cup provides a different portrait of the world’s greatest footballer

Messi’s World Cup ★★★½
Apple TV+

Lionel Messi, the greatest football player of all time, is in the final American phase of his career. Blessed with preternatural skills, the diminutive Argentinian forward played his club football in Europe, with Barcelona and then Paris Saint-Germain, before signing with both Inter Miami and Apple TV+ in July 2023. The streaming service, which broadcasts America’s Major League Soccer, soon debuted the documentary Messi Meets America. It was a cheerfully slight production, but now comes the main attraction: his World Cup win.

Lionel Messi after Argentina’s win against France at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.Credit: Tom Weller/Getty

Messi’s World Cup charts Argentina’s crisis-to-conquest victory in the 2022 World Cup, but success doesn’t mean Messi is suddenly revelatory in his interviews for this documentary. Shy off the field, and painfully averse to the controversy his comments can provoke, the 36-year-old is the antithesis of the modern sports deity. His lack of bluster is authentic, as is the anguish he felt over multiple tournament losses with Argentina. “It’s unbearable to be Messi,” explains football pundit Victor Morales, “but it’s extraordinary to be Messi.”

Illustrating that is not easy, but this four-part series succeeds thanks to an overview that’s stitched together from thoughtful talking heads and Messi’s dedicated teammates. In turn, it’s been illustrated with atmospheric footage of World Cup matches not seen in the tournament broadcast, then augmented with behind-the-scenes access. The grandeur of the Qatar-hosted tournament, and obsessive dedication of Argentinian fans serves as a contrast to Messi, who is often shot in profile so he can stay detached; sometimes his most telling answer is simply a sharp exhalation and a wry smile.

The narrative is shaped through emotional friction: Messi’s failure to satisfy Argentinian fans at previous World Cups is paramount. There’s virtually nothing about his tactical approach, or the way the team evolved after a disastrous opening match. It’s a broad approach, with an eye on American audiences, but the motivation is studded with a striking sense of how Messi, like Diego Maradona before him, is a totem of worship in a country where success in football is the medicine for national failings.

Messi eventually says a little more here than he previously has, even if a few of his final comments – heard in voiceover – sound suspiciously like narrative he’s reading. Some matches are the framework of an entire episode, some are covered in seconds, but the tournament’s finale against France couldn’t have been scripted better, and purely as a recounting Messi’s World Cup is tender and triumphant. That its subject is happiest sitting to the side thankfully creates a different portrait of sporting superstardom.

The Vince Staples Show ★★★½
Netflix

Kareem Grimes and Vince Staples in The Vince Staples Show.Credit: Netflix

This succinct comedy series from American hip-hop star Vince Staples comes with a caveat: it’s deeply reminiscent of Donald Glover’s sublime Atlanta, whether in the absurd escalations of everyday scenarios or the deadpan tone. Transplanted to ‘The Beach’, a chaotic representation of California’s Long Beach, the show takes satire to the edge of the macabre from the first episode, where Staples finds himself in a local jailhouse with chatty cops and a fellow inmate who won’t stop singing a song he wrote.

This five-episode season feels like Staples, who had a supporting role in Abbott Elementary, is stretching out into writing, running, and starring in his own show. Playing the put-upon Black anti-hero, who’s also a successful musician named Vince Staples, he snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. When Vince is invited to speak at his former high school, a classmate with a decades-old grudge turns the visit into a very different reunion.

The episodes are short but tightly self-contained. As vignettes they interweave the droll and the unpredictable, feeding off one another so the humour feels like the acceptance of cosmic bad luck. The show doesn’t take refuge in the fantastical: an episode where Vince’s trip to the bank is overtaken by a bank robbery has darker applications than mere contrast. If this is a test, Staples passes easily.

Ghosts (season 3)
Paramount+

Rose McIver as Samantha and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay in Ghosts.Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBS

Like The Office before it, this American remake of the hit British sitcom about a couple who become entangled with the madcap spirits from various eras that inhabit their newly inherited country home has found a distinct comedic groove of its own. The episodes bustle with historic complications, daft supernatural lore, and low-key metaphysical successes – there’s a lot going on, but it has an enjoyable flow and endearing individual performances. There are 40 episodes from the first two seasons preceding the new weekly instalment, and it’s a welcome addition to any comedy roster.

Suncoast
Disney+

Laura Linney and Nico Parker in a scene from Suncoast.Credit: Eric Zachanowich/ Searchlight Pictures

A coming-of-age movie with barely enough spiky edges, this autobiographical feature from writer/director Laura Chinn follows Doris (Nico Parker), an American teen whose life is drifting by as her brother’s terminal illness is the focus of her fraying mother, Kristine (Laura Linney). When Doris befriends Paul (Woody Harrelson), an activist protesting about the care of another patient at her brother’s hospital, she gets both a sounding board and some impetus. The cast is very good, but each of them is filling out a role that could have been better illustrated with some extra detail.

The Greatest Night in Pop
Netflix

The Greatest Night in Pop documents the 1985 recording session of We Are the World.Credit: Netflix

You can go into this feature-length documentary about the hastily convened 1985 recording session of We Are the World, the chart-topping charity single that featured a who’s who of notable American musicians, expecting baby boomer nostalgia, and you will certainly get some. But director Bao Nguyen is also wryly bemused by the now historic celebrity assemblage – Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Paul Simon and many more – and thankfully intrigued by the logistical and creative demands of creating an anthem. The song’s co-writer, Lionel Ritchie, proves to be a chatty guide.

The L Word (seasons 1-6)
Stan

The cast of The L Word, which ran for six seasons after debuting in 2004.

Like many groundbreaking shows, the passing of time has led to new generations casting an unvarnished gaze over this series – which debuted in 2004 and ran for six seasons – about the often-messy lives and loves of a group of lesbian and bisexual women in West Hollywood. Some of the criticisms are valid, but hindsight shouldn’t always trump a breakthrough in representation – Katherin Moennnig’s Shane will always be vexing, but also probably iconic. 2019’s Generation Q sequel got sidetracked trying to fix what it perceived as the original’s flaws, but 20 years on the original still delivers pleasure and purpose.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.