Nicholas Cage returns to the screen in The Surfer, director Lorcan Finnegan’s (Vivarium) darkly comic suspense thriller, which makes its Scottish premiere at Glasgow Film Festival, tonight (1 March 2025).
Cage’s nameless divorced dad takes his son (Finn Little) on a trip to his childhood surf spot, where he has his eyes on buying back his beach house. However, his father-son bonding is given an abrupt hault when a local surf gang claims ownership over the beach. Cage’s character tries to fight back, but when even the local police officer won’t help him, his sanity begins to crumble.
“You can certainly tell he is having a lot of fun with the material”
Nic Cage is one of the most interesting actors working today – his turn in Pig (2021) was one of that year’s unsung acting highlights, his role as Paul Matthews in Dream Scenario was hilariously absurd and his eery performance as the titular character in Longlegs drew some audience members to the edge of their seats. He has shown his range in these recent projects, but in The Surfer, he returns to the Cage-isms many love, staring off-screen in over-dramatic fashion and getting increasingly frustrated at the surfer gang. While not his best performance in recent years, you can certainly tell he is having a lot of fun with the material.
“A sign of a better, wackier film buried within”
That material, however, is not a strong point. The Surfer feels unsure of the type of film it desires to be, not comedic enough, not surreal enough. A modernistic scene where Cage can’t pay for his flat white because his phone has run out of battery is one of the film’s highlights, however, there’s nothing that really matches the absurd comedy of that scene again. And when the film tries to be more cryptic and surreal, it never comes off feeling natural, much like Vivarium (2019). However, when Cage goes to eat a rat to the horror of a passerby, it’s a sign of a better, wackier film buried within.
The cinematography by Radzek Ladczuk keeps things somewhat lively, with captivating usage of zooms and a dreamy atmosphere on an Australian beachside. Thomas Martin’s screenplay contains some fun moments, but lacks substance, and feels slightly repetitive. It would be interesting to see if it had fared better as a short film.
Lorcan Finnegan’s beach thriller is one for only the most devoted of Cage fans.
Featured Image Credit: Vertigo Releasing
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