A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Surfer” (2024) (From the 2024 London Film Festival).
“The Surfer” is the latest film from Nicolas Cage… and it’s bat-shit crazy. (To be fair, if you randomly said to someone in the street “Have you seen that bat-shit crazy film that Nicolas Cage was in?” it wouldn’t narrow the field down very much!) He seems to intersperse more artistic works (with more measured acting) – such as the “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and last-year’s excellent “Dream Scenario” – with his lower-budget schlock-horror stuff.
“The Surfer” kind of sits in the middle between those two extremes. But it is an odd little film. I really struggle to figure out what I really think about it and whether it is a 2 star film or a 4 star film… in the end I’ve given it a perhaps over-generous…
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The Surfer” Plot Summary:
‘The Surfer’ (Nicholas Cage) returns to Luna beach In Australia where he grew up to take his son (Finn Little) surfing as a life-lesson: “You either surf it, or you get wiped out”. But there he runs into an aggressive gang of surf-bums who chant “Don’t Live Here; Don’t Surf Here”.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (At the time of writing, this has not been rated by the BBFC, but I think it would be a ’15’ based on scenes of violence and some bad langage)
Talent:
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nicholas Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Finn Little.
Directed by: Lorcan Finnegan.
Written by: Thomas Martin.
Running Time: 1h 39m.
“The Surfer” Summary:
Positives:
- An interesting observation of a man doubling-down on the bad decisions he makes.
- Nicolas Cage delivers (another) larger than life performance.
Negatives:
- ‘The Surfer’ makes some really odd and highly illogical choices.
- The film makes some really odd choices. The titles and the cheesy music being two of them.
Review of “The Surfer”:
A downward spiral.
I don’t want to spoil the descent… but this demonstrates well the econimics concept which I believe is called “sunk-cost fallacy”: the urge to double-down on a committed strategy even when it makes no sense to do so. Cage is determined to surf and won’t let anything stand in his way. SImilarly, he is determined to close on his housing deal. But he is no “John McClane” type figure, wading onto the beach with guns blazing and fists swinging: he is a relatively timid man and not willing to ‘get involved’. For example, as a vagrant (Nicholas Cassim) is being roughed up in the beach car park, ‘The Surfer’ looks on askance but doesn’t intervene.
But the more ‘The Surfer’ tries to reach his goals, the more it recedes from him. It becomes a waking nightmare for Cage’s character as he tries to close on a $1.6m+ beachside property while losing his ability to positively influence it.
Cage is excellent.
There is nobody that does “frustrated crazy” better than Nicolas Cage and he gets to exercise that to the full in this film. He starts calm and collected but as the film goes on (helped with some effective hair and make-up work) he gets increasingly wild-eyed and manic. You see the reaction of other beach-goers to meeting this wild-eyed loon and I guiltily thought during these scenes “Yes… that’s how I instinctively react to vagrants approaching me on a London street”. They too perhaps started where ‘The Surfer’ started and every day is a little step down the slope.
Odd choices.
I know people under stress don’t always make rational decisions. But some of the surfer’s decisions really don’t make sense. He gives away things he shouldn’t give away and leaves other things where they are obviously going to be taken (for example, his shoes. At least the plot gave John McClane a valid reason for being barefoot!)
This is also a very odd film. The branding of the titles is like one of those old Universal TV movies of the 1970’s… yet we are in the modern day. The music by François Tétaz is incredibly brash and cheezy, like a 70’s porn movie. Was all of this deliberate? And if so, for what purpose?
Some of the odd choices I liked though. We see subliminal images from ‘The Surfer”s past, some of which only make sense in the end. Close ups of Australian wildlife also get intercut into the story. The Kookaburras often seem to be laughing at ‘The Surfer’s misfortunes!
The oddest aspect of the film is the finale, where the relationship between ‘The Surfer’ and the ‘Bay Boys’ changes radically. It really didn’t make any sense to me and revelations in a (very well filmed) drug-induced dream sequence seem to be real when the drugs wear off. Baffling.
A production logo record?
We’ve talked many times about the amusement I get from multiple production logos at the start of a film (with me regularly re-posting this link to the hilarious Family Guy spoof of this). I’m not sure what the actual record is, but this film must come close with about 10 different introductory logos!
Summary Thoughts on “The Surfer”
This is an oddity and I’ve struggled to rate it. On the one hand it has some very odd and rough edges and a plot that barely makes any sense. But on the other, I had a good time watching this crazyness. I honestly can’t say whether I would recommend it of not… this is one you will have to make your own mind up on!
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “The Surfer”:
At the time of writing there is no trailer for the film available. Here though is a link to a clip from the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d_zS0Q-kZU .
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