The Surfer: The BRWC Review. By Simon Thompson

Nicolas Cage is currently going through a true late career renaissance and it’s beautiful to see. His last few movies such as Pig, Dream Scenario, and director Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer show that he has lost none of his talent or daring trying new things. The Surfer is a lean, mean, and beautifully shot psychological thriller bolstered by two tour de force performances not only from Cage, but also from Julian McMahon, whose performance as the antagonist Scally is one of the more compelling villainous turns that I’ve seen in the last few years. 

The plot of The Surfer, follows the eponymous protagonist (Nicolas Cage) as he returns to his idyllic, Australian beach, childhood home with his son (Finn Little). Ostensibly there to take his son surfing, the Surfer reveals to his son the surprise twist that they are actually there because he is buying back his old childhood home. 

Before the two can hit the waves however, they are accosted by a local named Scally (Julian McMahon) and his band of Point Break style goons who try to bully and coerce the Surfer and his son into leaving. What follows from there is an intense, visceral 105 minutes where the Surfer is pushed to his physical and psychological breaking point in his pursuit of reacquiring his childhood home. 

Although the supporting cast in this film are excellent, the plaudits will deservedly go to Cage and McMahon’s performances. In Cage’s case he expertly balances a steadily increasing and understandable seething anger with a kind of desperate pathos at the same time. His character is a living testament to the idea of one bad day being able to drive even the sanest man to insanity,  à la Alan Moore’s classic Batman story The Killing Joke. 

McMahon’s character Scally on the other hand is a jambalaya of Frank TJ Mackey, Don Logan, Dennis Reynolds and Jake Humphrey, a crazed quasi spiritual guru who is a uniquely chilling villain that perfectly reflects the times that we live in. McMahon’s performance is fantastic because he doesn’t turn Scally into a cartoonish Andrew Tate parody, instead he utilises a brooding intensity mixed with a fake caring attitude, which is an intelligent stylistic choice on the part of McMahon and scriptwriter Thomas Martin, as it makes Scally a far more interesting character than other villains of his type.

Finnegan’s direction squeezes every ounce of cinematic magic out of its beach location. The beach bolsters the film’s dreamlike atmosphere, creating a hazy psychedelic feeling through the constantly boiling sun and the recurring images of its high tide. Finnegan’s repeated use of close ups gives the movie a powerful sense of dread which doesn’t let up until the very end-  at which point everybody in the cinema ( including me) breathed a sigh of relief. 

Overall, The Surfer is a fantastic throwback to a very 1970s style of psychological thriller that the likes of Nicholas Roeg or Sam Peckinpah would have made. Cage and McMahon play off each other beautifully, and the movie’s deceptively simple premise is far more malleable than a cursory glance at the plot would have you believe. If you want to support  actually interesting and original filmmaking, or are a newcomer to the late career Nic Cage renaissance and want a starting point, The Surfer is the movie for you.

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