I miss the days before meme culture, when Nicolas Cage’s out-thereness felt more like a spontaneous, wild phenomenon than a deliberately cultivated one. In the days of Vampire’s Kiss and Face/Off, his campier performances were a rarified taste, but the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man changed everything. Early YouTubers sliced and diced a slog of a film into a compilation of classic Cage-isms (“Not the bees!”), and early virality was born.
These days, it’s rare for Cage to star in a film that doesn’t feel self-consciously shaped around his reputation, be it Longlegs, Dream Scenario or The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he played an overt parody of himself. The Surfer, the latest from director Lorcan Finnegan (Nocebo, Vivarium), is certainly in that tradition. But this thriller, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, would be an oddity even without the Cage factor. Catch it at Essex Cinemas — or, failing that, a few years from now on some ad-supported streamer where weird flicks go to die.
The deal
The Surfer (Cage) returns after a long absence to the Australian beach where he grew up, hoping to introduce his teenage son (Finn Little) to the prime surfing spot and buy the house where he had an idyllic childhood.
But someone has outbid him, and when he tries to shepherd his reluctant kid onto the beach, a local named Scally (Julian McMahon) snarls obscenities. Scally leads a gang of “Bay Boys” who fiercely, and sometimes violently, defend their spot from outsiders.
Undeterred by this evidence that you can’t go home again, the Surfer camps out in his Lexus, haranguing his broker about finding funds to raise his bid. He bonds with a vengeful Bum (Nicholas Cassim) who insists that Scally was responsible for his son’s death.
When the Surfer refuses to vacate his spot in the beach parking lot, the Bay Boys embark on a campaign of terror. As days pass, our protagonist’s possessions disappear one by one, including the emblems of his social status. His grip on reality loosens. One might ask: Why doesn’t he … leave? In his own words, the guy just wants to surf.
Will you like it?
The trailer for The Surfer makes it look like a home invasion thriller, when it’s actually about the questionable fantasies that underlie home invasion thrillers. In screenwriter Thomas Martin’s minimalist story, which never leaves the beach, the question of who is “home” and who is the “invader” is up for grabs.
When they aren’t partying in their super-secret beach clubhouse, the Bay Boys expel outsiders with a viciousness worthy of middle school. The Surfer bristles in outrage — not out of a sense of fairness but because he believes he should be exempt from this xenophobia. The role is a great fit for Cage, who makes the Surfer not just unhinged (as you’d expect) but also amusingly petty and self-centered. Though our divorced protagonist sees himself as a family man, his quest to reclaim the beach is transparently less about his kid (who’s barely on-screen) than it is about healing his own broken soul.
The Surfer’s unlikely story has the shape of a parable; once we hear a reference to a Buddhist teaching about endurance, we know what’s coming. But this is a pointedly absurd fable that pokes fun at the theme of so many vigilante action flicks: that a man proves his manhood through suffering. While the tormentors in most such movies are hardscrabble rubes, the members of Scally’s cult are well-heeled surburbanites who “cosplay as surf gangsters,” as the Bum puts it. When they chant a battle cry of “Surfer, suffer!” it’s impossible to take them seriously.
The film’s style nods knowingly to vintage exploitation flicks in the Roger Corman vein. Cinematographer Radek Ladczuk uses lenses to psychedelic effect, underlining the Surfer’s descent into madness, while saturated candy colors render the beach as a demented, nostalgic fantasy. François Tétaz’s throwback score is operatic one moment and pop-sugary the next.
It’s rare in these days of focus groups for a movie to hit different audiences completely differently. I suspect that some viewers will see The Surfer as a smart satirical pastiche, others as a harrowing tale of personal transformation and still others as a pointless bore. But for my money, it works. While Martin’s screenplay has flaws — there’s some teasing of backstory that fizzles — it’s clever enough to keep us guessing about its final destination.
This weird little movie is doing more than riding the Cage wave. But if you’re looking for fresh meme material, you’ll find that here, too.
If you like this, try…
The Royal Hotel (2023; Disney+, Hulu, rentable): Two obvious precursors to The Surfer, Straw Dogs and Wake in Fright (both 1971), aren’t streaming. In this more recent thriller about two American backpackers who take jobs at a remote Australian pub, director Kitty Green portrays the female side of a similar situation.
Nocebo (2022; AMC+, Hulu, Shudder, rentable): Finnegan’s previous effort is a folk horror film in which a Filipina nanny finds an unusual remedy for an ailing fashion designer.
Color Out of Space (2019; AMC+, Tubi, rentable): Of all the recent movies that have banked on a wild Cage performance, this sci-fi/horror about a family battling an extraterrestrial is a cult favorite. See also the surreal revenge thriller Mandy (2018; AMC+, Philo, PLEX, Roku Channel, Xumo Play, rentable).
This article appears in May 7-13, 2025.
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