The Surfer – Film Review
Reviewed by Damien Straker on the 11 May 2025
Madman presents a film by Lorcan Finnegan
Written by Thomas Martin
Produced by Leonora Darby, James Harris, Robert Connolly, James Grandison, Brunella Cocchiglia, Nicolas Cage, and Nathan Klingher
Starring Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, and Justin Rosniak
Cinematography Radek Ładczuk
Edited by Tony Cranstoun
Music by François Tétaz
Rating: TBA
Running Time: 103 minutes
Release Date: the 15th of May 2025 (and streaming exclusively on Stan from 15 June 2025).
No other actor in Hollywood is capable of what Nicolas Cage is currently undertaking. The different modes of anxiety he cycles through in one film is striking to behold. No more is his gift for insanity and self-depreciation apparent than in the US-Australian film The Surfer. Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan is responsible. He is less interested in retreading conventional surfer movie clichés than in psychologically torturing his lead actor. Cage’s ability to dramatise his own pitiful demise is itself very funny.
Though by the end of this peculiar, beautifully shot thriller you wish Finnegan and screenwriter Thomas Martin would offer their leading man some reprieve. A few wins would not have gone astray. Instead, the film is pitched at a high level of hot-collared madness. Then it really explodes. It is a diverting little thriller with another good Cage performance. However, its disregard for good taste means it will not be for everyone.
Cage plays the Surfer, an American Australian businessman who has moved between the two countries. He is now eager to purchase a beachside house in Australia so he can permanently relocate and be with his teenage son (Finn Little). Over the phone, his ex-wife reveals she is moving on with someone else. All that is left for the Surfer is to help his son catch some waves. When they reach the sand, a group of men intimidate them. They repeat the same brutal warning: ‘don’t live here, don’t surf here’. Fearing the confrontation could turn violent, the Surfer and his son retreat. They are also disturbed by the presence of a Bum (Nic Cassim) who lives nearby in his car. The Surfer and the Bum are taunted by the surf gang’s leader, Scally (Julian McMahon). He and his group are comparable to a deranged cult.
Later, Scally tries entering the Surfer’s head by offering him food and talking to him about experiencing pain. Most concerning is when the Surfer is convinced Scally has stolen his surfboard. His only ally in this standoff is a disarming photographer (played by Miranda Tapsell) whose photos offer him glimpses of clarity. Meanwhile, the Surfer scrambles to close the deal on the house he desperately needs.
The film’s machoism and insanity aside, it is easy to forget how well photographed The Surfer is. Finnegan has hired cinematographer Radek Ladczuk to shoot the film. Ladczuk worked twice before with filmmaker Jennifer Kent, having shot The Babadook (2014) and The Nightingale (2019). Unsurprisingly, The Surfer is a particularly well framed, lit, and attractive film. It was shot in the town of Yallingup, which is in Western Australia. While minus any big surfing moments or waves, the water is glorious and the beachhead scenes beautiful. The natural light and heat accentuate the fiery tension between the men on the sand. The film’s climate is as important to building internal drama as it is in showcasing another lush, sundrenched Australian location.
Within these frames Finnegan and Cage effortlessly shift the action from tense verbal standoffs to fistfights before divulging into psychological gaslighting. The Surfer contacts the police about his board only to be dismissed by a cop (Justin Rosniak) who sides with Scally. The more people twist the Surfer’s brain, the more unhinged and funnier the movie becomes. There is something compelling about how this weird, enigmatic actor can make his own pain (stepping on glass, chugging dirty water, and swinging a dead rat) incredibly enjoyable to watch. The filmmakers know people are waiting for Cage to enter overdrive and on that front the film delivers.
The film’s increasingly wild fever dream mood overshadows what a mesmerising actor Cage is. He proves gripping to watch because of the various modes through which he explores. Early on, we see how tender he tries to be in connecting with his son. After The Weather Man (2005) and Dream Scenario (2023), he obviously loves playing luckless family men who are isolated from their children. He then becomes increasingly helpless as if prolonging the growing subgenre about people stealing Nicholas Cage’s possessions. Just as he pleaded in Pig (2021) for his animal, now he is desperate to reclaim his board and his watch! As has also become another predictable staple of Cage’s oeuvre, he grows louder and increasingly unhinged.
No other working actor makes this swing-for-the-fences hysteria collectively painful and funny. Though among the teeth gnashing and angst, there are flaws. Why the Surfer and his son don’t just move to another part of the beach and sidestep Scally’s crew is never addressed. Miranda Tapsell looks to add some much-wanted relief to the pummelling. However, her presence is fleeting. She only features in a few scenes. We don’t see enough of how funny she can be. She would have added much-needed reprieve to the punishment the Surfer character endures.
No one would ever mistake The Surfer for being subtle and deftly realised. Sometimes we don’t ask for subtlety. Sometimes you just want to see a film where Nicolas Cage shoves a dead rat inside someone’s mouth. This might not be how you expect to spend a quiet evening at the movies. Nor would it be what the Lumiere brothers envisioned for cinema. Nonetheless, it is here, and it is damn funny all the same. Cage is one of the few actors working today who can make his own suffering engaging to watch. Yet it might just be a case of there being too much of a good thing.
The punishment dished out in The Surfer is brutal and relentless. The side actors are characterised in a similar, over-the-top cartoon vein. Their hyper-exaggeration underlines the feelings of inadequacy living inside the Surfer’s head. If being inside Cage’s mind seems enticing, then The Surfer is a weird but entertaining place to lose yourself.
Summary: If being inside Cage’s mind seems enticing, then The Surfer is a weird but entertaining place to lose yourself.
3
Enjoyable
About the Author
Damien Straker is a freelance writer and film critic. He studied at the University of Sydney and graduated with an Arts Honours degree in Film Studies. He is a pop culture aficionado and enjoys talking about all films, 90s TV shows, ninjas and watching Rugby League. His favourite film directors are Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood and Alexander Payne.
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