Disclaimer: Have been a Nicolas Cage Wonk for 43 years. Bias should be accepted.
The Surfer got a 5 minute standing ovation at Cannes.
In The Surfer, Nic plays a gent (the title role) taking his son on a quick surf on a break in Luna Bay, Australia, where he grew up. The plan is to float in the water and gaze off into the distance at his childhood home, which he now repurchased for the good of the family.
That's rudely interrupted in a gruff fashion by some beach thugs led by the recently deceased Julian McMahon (shame, hell of an actor), and Cage and son are ridden off the beach for not being locals. After Nic's kid is deposited safely at home, the surfer spends the rest of the film getting deeper and deeper involved and obsessed with these thugs, who prove to be a cult on the beach. The whole film takes place in a car park and the Luna Bay sandscape. As the surfer’s anger and need to get this beach situation straightened out, it grows conspiratorial.
Who here in Luna Bay isn't working to destroy The Surfer's life, as he begins to degrade along with all aspects of his life due to the actions of these alpha-male cult members? These freaks have real jobs and relationships away from the bay, but become cro-magnon thugs corrupting all those around them once back on the beach. Their desire to get back to the aggressive nature of "real man" functioning is their only goal. They'd be incels, if they didn't have women in their lives.
You, as well as The Surfer begin to question the reality of it all, as this cult begins to pick The Surfer's life apart.
There are shades of Eden Lake, mixed with Wake in Fright, as Lorcan Finnegan's masterful shooting creates a shock-bright background to the very dark happenings. Much like 1982's The Prey, long-lasting shots of the local wildlife bring beauty and a tad of humor into the events.
Similar to Cage's Pig, The Surfer avoids going the easy route by becoming a revenge-fueled action thriller and instead becomes about a man's journey. In Pig, Cage was in total control as he searched for his prize pig, not by leaving his woodsy surroundings and tearing apart the city like James Brolin in Night of the Juggler, but by using his connections, his intellect, and inner peace, cultivated from years of isolation. In the Surfer, you join a man, on screen for almost the entire film; this is a Cage tour de force. He's stripped of all he thought he was, connects with his past, and has to face some dark decisions, before another outside force pushes decision making into its final phase.
Not an outright horror film, this is more about what makes mankind tick, and how close to the edge we are at all times with our dependence on technology, and thinking that monetary quality of life has all the answers. Is this beach cult right in getting back to "the animal" in all of us? Or can you hang onto your humanity in the face of monsters trying to reduce you to your lizard brain?
Does it matter?
