Once In A Lifetime review

New York in the sweltering summer of 1977. Serial killer "Son of Sam" is on the loose, widespread looting and violence follow a blackout... And the likes of Henry Kissinger and Mick Jagger join crowds of over 70,000 at the Giants Stadium to watch the New York Cosmos, a soccer team whose legendary line-up included Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto.

Co-directed by Brits Paul Crowder and John Dower, this absorbing doc charts the swift rise and fall of a club purchased by media titan Steve Ross, head of Warner Communications, who aspired to turn soccer into a major American sport. Alongside archive footie footage and a vintage soundtrack, the filmmakers make intelligent use of lively interviews with former Cosmos personnel to vividly capture that brief era when, finally, the US 'got' soccer. And its sex, excesses and ludicrous perms.