The Surfer is a feature length ‘bottle episode’ contained entirely to an Australian beach and its adjacent parking lot. Nicolas Cage plays a seemingly successful businessman (The Surfer, as credited on IMDb and in the film’s title) who is nearing closing a deal on his old seaside home near his favorite childhood beach. When he attempts to take his son on a surfing trip at the nearby beach to bond and reminisce, they are met with an aggressively territorial gang of local surfers who will defend their beach at all costs. A relaxing surfing trip with his son quickly turns into a no-holds-bar hellscape of epic proportions as The Surfer is tested both mentally and physically in the most grueling, and at times, revoltingly abhorrent trials and tribulations. 

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Nicolas Cage delivers yet another balls-to the-wall, slow boil performance that begins in a ‘normal’ and ‘reasonable’ place (at least Nicolas Cage’s best attempt to hold himself to a normal/reasonable persona). This normality quickly fades as he begins to lose all of his possessions, his dignity, his dream home and eventually his grip on reality. When the local surfer cult torments him to his breaking point, The Surfer unleashes a wrath in the form of an insurmountable wave of vengeance on his suntanned arch nemeses. The eccentric electricity of Nic Cage is on full shocking display as the Cage Rage tide rises to a drowning point for all Australian surf bros that wade in his wake.  

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Julian McMahon plays Scally, leader of the local Surfer gang, who serves as a worthy adversary to Cage along with his short fuse henchmen Curly (Michael Abercromby), Pitbull (Alexander Bertrand) and Blondie (Rory O'Keeffe) who are intimidatingly silly in their chest thumping, grandiose, loathe inducing character performances.

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Director Lorcan Finnegan and Cinematographer Radek Ladczuk’s vision for the movie creates a feeling of intimacy with the environment the characters find themselves trapped in. As an audience member you feel the fatigue of the sun and its blazing heat beating down on you, draining you of energy as if you spent a day on the hot Australian beach with the characters. It’s a hot, sticky, humid snowglobe sans snow and you feel empathy for Cage’s Surfer as he quarrels with his sense of reality until it culminates in an unforgettable battle featuring a cleverly weaponized dead rodent and surprising character turns that you won’t see coming. If you’re not a fan of Nicolas Cage or would describe him as ‘a bit much’ you should probably stick to the wave pool, but if you’re on board for some delightful NC shenanigans surf’s up, brah. 😎