Latest news with #LongWeekend
Hamilton Spectator
31-07-2025
- Climate
- Hamilton Spectator
UPDATE: Out of control wildfire near Cameron Lake, Highway 4 remains open
By Nora O'Malley Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Highway 4, BC – BC Wildfire crews are hitting the Wesley Ridge blaze near Cameron Lake hard with multiple aircrafts to cool and contain the out-of-control wildfire that was discovered on Thursday morning, July 31. Wildfire smoke is wafting through Port Alberni as residents in the impacted area on the north side of Cameron Lake have been ordered to evacuate immediately by the Regional District of Nanaimo . On a scale of one to six, BC Wildfire ranked Wesley Ridge Fire Number V71145 as a two with pockets of three, stating that it is a 'low vigorous, ground service fire with open flame visible'. 'We are fortunate to have low winds at this time,' said Coastal Fire Centre Information Officer Kimberly Kelly in a midday July 31 media update. 'The weather forecast is not seeing a significant increase in wind activity or a change in direction so we're not expecting the wind to be a factor at this time. Just understand when we forecast our weather it's a prediction, not a promise,' she continued. The size of the wildfire is 40-hectares as of 1:14 p.m., July 31. That is double the size BC Wildfire first reported. Wesley Ridge is located about four kilometres east of Cathedral Grove on the opposite side of Cameron Lake from Highway 4, the main road connecting the West Coast and Port Alberni to the east side of the Vancouver Island. Highway 4 currently remains open in both directions as crews tackle the fire. 'There is no threat at this time. However, this is a dynamic situation,' said Kelly. BC Wildfire reported that the blaze was first detected after midnight and is 'burning aggressively and is in difficult to access terrain.' Kelly says the terrain in the area is steep and will give ground crews some challenges in terms of accessibility. Coombs and Dashwood fire departments are engaged, according to BC Wildifre. In collaboration with local government, the wildfire officials are recommending evac orders and alerts based on ease of access for crews and structural protection equipment as well as egress for public. 'Travelers on highway 4 please be mindful - crews and aircraft are working in the area, proceed with caution and stay focused on the road and don't stop the flow of traffic,' states BC Wildfire. Drive BC re-iterates. 'Watch for fire crews working in the area, as well as possible reduced visibility due to smoke. Highway is open,' states Drive BC in a July 31 update. BC Wildfire suspects the blaze was caused by humans, either intentionally or by accident. In June 2023, a wildfire at Cameron Bluffs closed Highway 4 for almost three weeks, with delays affecting the route for most of the summer. With August Long Weekend upon us, Kelly urged the public to recreate responsibly to prevent wildfires. She said 95 per cent of 2025 wildfires within the Coastal Fire region are suspected to be caused by people. To report smoke or fires, call 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 or through the BCWS mobile app on your smart device. For up-to-date information about driving conditions, visit: . -30- Wesley Ridge is located about four kilometres east of Cathedral Grove on the opposite side of Cameron Lake from Highway 4, the main road connecting the West Coast and Port Alberni to the east side of the Vancouver Island. (Irine Polyzogopoulos photos) Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Indianapolis Star
27-05-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
The deals aren't over! Shop extended MDW clothing sales at Free People, Madewell
Memorial Day 2025 might (technically) be over, but many of the long weekend's best deals are still live—particularly within the clothing category. That's right: We found extended Memorial Day clothing sales from top brands like Madewell, Cozy Earth and Anthropologie—which feature all the same deals we were treated to over the weekend, but with even more time to shop them. Whether you're in the market for a new go-to summer dress, a comfy pair of New Balance sneakers that you can wear on repeat or a statement designer handbag that'll elevate any look—whether you're commuting to work or traveling on a family holiday—we curated a guide to the best Memorial Day clothing deals that you can still shop today, even if you missed out on the offerings this weekend. Below, browse our favorite finds, including breezy denim shorts, a floral Billabong bathing suit and more. Kate Spade's Long Weekend sale is still live; take an extra 20% off all styles, plus enjoy $100 off on orders of over $350 or more. Just use the code WEEKEND. More: Get $100 off your next Kate Spade handbag purchase at this MDW sale 👛 Save even more at Madewell this week with extended Memorial Day deals. For a limited time, shoppers can get 25% off, plus an additional 40% off sale items with the code LONGWEEKEND. In celebration of Memorial Day, Nordstrom is offering extended summer deals on a range of products at its Half Yearly Sale—including swimwear. Plus, Nordy Club members can enjoy free two-day shipping in select locations. More: Super chic designer deals with up to 60% off at Nordstrom's Half-Yearly Sale 🛍️ This week at Kohl's, enjoy free shipping on all orders over $49, plus a bevy of other summer deals—including up to 80% off summer clearance. Treat yourself to a new maxi dress for summer and shop major clothing deals from White House Black Market. The label is offering an extra 50% off sale tops, plus an extra 40% off sale styles—literal deals on top of deals. Cozy Earth's massive Memorial Day clothing sale is still live! For a limited time, save up to 45% on best-selling loungewear, bedding and more. More: Get up to 35% off eco-friendly bedding and apparel at Cozy Earth's Memorial Day sale Old Navy's Memorial Day deals have officially rolled into summer deals, giving shoppers the chance to stock up on breezy summer essentials at a fraction of their usual cost. Free People is still offering hidden clothing deals, including select discounts on its most popular athleticwear. Maximalist must-haves: Free People's Memorial Day event has an extra 30% off all sale items New customers, this summer deal is just for you! For a limited time, save 15% off your first Jenny Bird order on accessories sitewide.
USA Today
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
The deals aren't over! Shop extended MDW clothing sales at Free People, Madewell
The deals aren't over! Shop extended MDW clothing sales at Free People, Madewell Save on summer staples, chic accessories and more. Memorial Day 2025 might (technically) be over, but many of the long weekend's best deals are still live—particularly within the clothing category. That's right: We found extended Memorial Day clothing sales from top brands like Madewell, Cozy Earth and Anthropologie—which feature all the same deals we were treated to over the weekend, but with even more time to shop them. Whether you're in the market for a new go-to summer dress, a comfy pair of New Balance sneakers that you can wear on repeat or a statement designer handbag that'll elevate any look—whether you're commuting to work or traveling on a family holiday—we curated a guide to the best Memorial Day clothing deals that you can still shop today, even if you missed out on the offerings this weekend. Below, browse our favorite finds, including breezy denim shorts, a floral Billabong bathing suit and more. Shop the best extended Memorial Day clothing sales 1. Kate Spade Kate Spade's Long Weekend sale is still live; take an extra 20% off all styles, plus enjoy $100 off on orders of over $350 or more. Just use the code WEEKEND. More: Get $100 off your next Kate Spade handbag purchase at this MDW sale 👛 2. Madewell Save even more at Madewell this week with extended Memorial Day deals. For a limited time, shoppers can get 25% off, plus an additional 40% off sale items with the code LONGWEEKEND. 3. Nordstrom In celebration of Memorial Day, Nordstrom is offering extended summer deals on a range of products at its Half Yearly Sale—including swimwear. Plus, Nordy Club members can enjoy free two-day shipping in select locations. More: Super chic designer deals with up to 60% off at Nordstrom's Half-Yearly Sale 🛍️ 4. Kohl's This week at Kohl's, enjoy free shipping on all orders over $49, plus a bevy of other summer deals—including up to 80% off summer clearance. 5. White House Black Market Treat yourself to a new maxi dress for summer and shop major clothing deals from White House Black Market. The label is offering an extra 50% off sale tops, plus an extra 40% off sale styles—literal deals on top of deals. 6. Cozy Earth Cozy Earth's massive Memorial Day clothing sale is still live! For a limited time, save up to 45% on best-selling loungewear, bedding and more. More: Get up to 35% off eco-friendly bedding and apparel at Cozy Earth's Memorial Day sale 7. Old Navy Old Navy's Memorial Day deals have officially rolled into summer deals, giving shoppers the chance to stock up on breezy summer essentials at a fraction of their usual cost. 8. Free People Free People is still offering hidden clothing deals, including select discounts on its most popular athleticwear. Maximalist must-haves: Free People's Memorial Day event has an extra 30% off all sale items 9. Jenny Bird New customers, this summer deal is just for you! For a limited time, save 15% off your first Jenny Bird order on accessories sitewide. What are extended Memorial Day deals? Extended Memorial Day deals are limited-time sales that were hosted throughout Memorial Day weekend from top retailers, and which have since been extended so that shoppers have even more opportunity to take advantage of the savings.
USA Today
24-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- USA Today
Stylish savings: Add an extra 20% off markdowns at the Coach Outlet Memorial Day sale 👜
Stylish savings: Add an extra 20% off markdowns at the Coach Outlet Memorial Day sale 👜 A great bag can instantly elevate a summer outfit and few brands do timeless and trendy quite like Coach. Whether you're adding a trendy crossbody bag to a summer barbecue look or styling it with a cute pair of strappy sandals and a summer dress, now's the time to treat yourself at Coach Outlet. Coach Outlet is offering an extra 20% off already marked-down styles as part of its Long Weekend sale for Memorial Day. That means you save more on classics like the leather crossbody, roomy totes for those weekend getaways, sandals and more. Here are the top deals to shop during the Long Weekend sale at the Coach Outlet: Shop the best Memorial Day deals at Coach Outlet COACH x WNBA: Accessorize like Paige Bueckers and Hailey Van Lith with Coach's WNBA Courtside Edit What's the difference between Coach Outlet and Coach? Coach Outlet and Coach are obviously very visually similar, but they differ when it comes to product selection and prices. Coach Outlet offers shoppers an opportunity to own Coach products at much more affordable price points. These items are either overstocked from Coach stores or specifically manufactured for the outlet. One of the biggest differences is that Coach usually features exclusive collections that are not available at Coach Outlet. These collections are often inspired by current trends and designs, making them highly sought after. When is Memorial Day 2025? Memorial Day 2025 is observed on Monday, May 26. It is one of the 11 federal holidays recognized nationwide. It's also the unofficial start to summer in the retail world. Save an extra 20% at Coach Outlet
The Advertiser
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Like Home and Away on crack: will Aussies bristle at toxic beach Ockers?
"I hope everyone has tough enough skin to know that it's only a bit of craic." Irish director Lorcan Finnegan smiles as he ponders the possibility that Australians will baulk, and maybe even bristle, at his unflattering depiction of tribal and toxic Ocker Aussies in his trippy psychological thriller The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage. Filmed in Yallingup, the home of surf champ Taj Burrow near Busselton in Western Australia, The Surfer sets Cage on a sun-baked slow boil as a returning expat who's made an offer on a big house overlooking the idyllic beach where he grew up. He dreams that coming home to Luna Bay will bring him closer to his son and maybe save his marriage. But the thuggish gang of local surfers here won't let "outsiders" like him ride the waves, so bonding with his boy on their surfboards isn't looking likely. "Locals only", the beach signs warn. "Don't live here, don't surf here" the menacing Bay Boys growl to his face. But as the abuse of the louts escalates - beating him up, stealing his surfboard, vandalising his Lexus - Cage, desperately driven by ego, alienation and an aching sense of nostalgia, won't let it go and sets up camp in the carpark above the beach. It's a sweaty, chafing, dementedly macho scenario of sometimes surreal savagery cooked up with fiendish glee by Finnegan and scriptwriter (and fellow Irishman) Thomas Martin to push Cage to breaking point. As the hallucinogenic effects of blistering sun and extreme heat and the humiliations meted out by alpha male Julian McMahon's cult of bogan bullies pile up, he loses his fancy watch, his phone charger, his shoes and, inevitably, his mind. Those strange distortions staring back at him in the metal mirror in the carpark toilet block begin to feel frighteningly real. Partially inspired by the aggressively territorial Lunada Bay Boys, a surf gang that notoriously claimed a stretch of Californian coast as their own, the film's more recognisable reference is a retro B-movie visual style and gonzo tone that evokes Australian New Wave films of the 1970s. Think Wake in Fright (1971), The Last Wave (1977) and Long Weekend (1978). Finnegan calls The Surfer's vibe "strange and dreamy" but there's a riptide of horror running through the cinematography of Radek Ladczuk (The Babadook, The Nightingale) and the eerily off-kilter score by Franois Tétaz (Wolf Creek). Wake In Fright, Ted Kotcheff's skin-crawling portrait of an ugly Australia (notorious for its kangaroo hunt sequence and notable for being Chips Rafferty's final film and Jack Thompson's first), is an unmistakable influence. With its own animalistic grotesquery, The Surfer plays like Wake in Fright in wetsuits. "When I started filmmaking, Australian New Wave and Ozploitation films were a massive inspiration," Finnegan says. "My very first film Without Name was inspired by Picnic At Hanging Rock, the Peter Weir film, and Colin Eggleston's Long Weekend. "So for this film, yeah, we were watching a lot of Wake in Fright and also Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout. Those films have the tradition of the outsider. Not only the outsider as a character, but the outsider as the filmmaker going to Australia and making a very Australian film - with Nic Roeg being British and Ted Kotcheff being Canadian." But Finnegan insists he didn't set out to hold up a warped public toilet mirror to Australians. "This isn't a critique of Australia," he says. "It's about a very specific group of people on this beach. To me, these guys are almost part of the Jungian journey that Nic Cage's character has to go on ... they are representative of some sort of shadow self within him. What he believes he wants at the beginning of the film is just this materialist goal of owning this house and that will fix all of his problems and his relationships. They have to be mean to him because, as they say, before you can surf you must suffer. To me these characters are almost caricatures [and] ... poking fun at that sort of hypermasculinity and the male ego in crisis." Cage, the Oscar-winner for 1995's Leaving Las Vegas who relished playing a version of his kooky self in 2022's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, leans hard into The Surfer's Kafkaesque absurdity. The film's ending comes without his character exacting the ultimate revenge we might have expected and without one of those head-bursts-into-Ghost Rider-flames explosions of Cage rage that have become the actor's trademark. But, like Wake in Fright's outsider driven to madness by the locals, Cage takes his descent into some very unsavoury places. At one point in his disintegration into delirium he flirts with eating a dead rat, then he uses it as a weapon (Look out for the line "Eat the rat!" coming to a Cage meme near you). There's also a scene involving a nest of bird eggs that takes you all the way back to 1989 and his cockroach-eating scene in Vampire's Kiss. Like Walkabout, Finnegan lays on deliberately discomforting cutaway close-ups to cackling kookaburras, shrieking cicadas and echidnas clawing at the earth. The flies - drawn to Cage's sunburn and sweat make-up ("there was a lot of fake sweat") - were an authentic bonus. "We were just lucky with the flies," he laughs. "I thought we were lucky. I don't think the actors thought that." Like many in Ireland and the UK, the filmmaker (whose previous films include Jesse Eisenberg sci-fi horror Vivarium and Eva Green thriller Nocebo) grew up with sunshine-filled Aussie soaps like Home & Away and Neighbours. He seems to relish the suggestion his pulpy psychodrama flips that image on its ugly edge and plays like Home & Away on crack. "Yes, the score for the film by Franois Tetaz, for the scene where Nic is walking around drinking out of puddles and eating bird eggs, has a piece of music called Clam's Casino that actually has flavours of Skippy in it." What's that, Skip? The outsiders have stolen your banjo-and-harmonica innocence and turned it into a demented riff on dinkum tribalism? Tsk tsk! "I hope everyone has tough enough skin to know that it's only a bit of craic." Irish director Lorcan Finnegan smiles as he ponders the possibility that Australians will baulk, and maybe even bristle, at his unflattering depiction of tribal and toxic Ocker Aussies in his trippy psychological thriller The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage. Filmed in Yallingup, the home of surf champ Taj Burrow near Busselton in Western Australia, The Surfer sets Cage on a sun-baked slow boil as a returning expat who's made an offer on a big house overlooking the idyllic beach where he grew up. He dreams that coming home to Luna Bay will bring him closer to his son and maybe save his marriage. But the thuggish gang of local surfers here won't let "outsiders" like him ride the waves, so bonding with his boy on their surfboards isn't looking likely. "Locals only", the beach signs warn. "Don't live here, don't surf here" the menacing Bay Boys growl to his face. But as the abuse of the louts escalates - beating him up, stealing his surfboard, vandalising his Lexus - Cage, desperately driven by ego, alienation and an aching sense of nostalgia, won't let it go and sets up camp in the carpark above the beach. It's a sweaty, chafing, dementedly macho scenario of sometimes surreal savagery cooked up with fiendish glee by Finnegan and scriptwriter (and fellow Irishman) Thomas Martin to push Cage to breaking point. As the hallucinogenic effects of blistering sun and extreme heat and the humiliations meted out by alpha male Julian McMahon's cult of bogan bullies pile up, he loses his fancy watch, his phone charger, his shoes and, inevitably, his mind. Those strange distortions staring back at him in the metal mirror in the carpark toilet block begin to feel frighteningly real. Partially inspired by the aggressively territorial Lunada Bay Boys, a surf gang that notoriously claimed a stretch of Californian coast as their own, the film's more recognisable reference is a retro B-movie visual style and gonzo tone that evokes Australian New Wave films of the 1970s. Think Wake in Fright (1971), The Last Wave (1977) and Long Weekend (1978). Finnegan calls The Surfer's vibe "strange and dreamy" but there's a riptide of horror running through the cinematography of Radek Ladczuk (The Babadook, The Nightingale) and the eerily off-kilter score by Franois Tétaz (Wolf Creek). Wake In Fright, Ted Kotcheff's skin-crawling portrait of an ugly Australia (notorious for its kangaroo hunt sequence and notable for being Chips Rafferty's final film and Jack Thompson's first), is an unmistakable influence. With its own animalistic grotesquery, The Surfer plays like Wake in Fright in wetsuits. "When I started filmmaking, Australian New Wave and Ozploitation films were a massive inspiration," Finnegan says. "My very first film Without Name was inspired by Picnic At Hanging Rock, the Peter Weir film, and Colin Eggleston's Long Weekend. "So for this film, yeah, we were watching a lot of Wake in Fright and also Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout. Those films have the tradition of the outsider. Not only the outsider as a character, but the outsider as the filmmaker going to Australia and making a very Australian film - with Nic Roeg being British and Ted Kotcheff being Canadian." But Finnegan insists he didn't set out to hold up a warped public toilet mirror to Australians. "This isn't a critique of Australia," he says. "It's about a very specific group of people on this beach. To me, these guys are almost part of the Jungian journey that Nic Cage's character has to go on ... they are representative of some sort of shadow self within him. What he believes he wants at the beginning of the film is just this materialist goal of owning this house and that will fix all of his problems and his relationships. They have to be mean to him because, as they say, before you can surf you must suffer. To me these characters are almost caricatures [and] ... poking fun at that sort of hypermasculinity and the male ego in crisis." Cage, the Oscar-winner for 1995's Leaving Las Vegas who relished playing a version of his kooky self in 2022's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, leans hard into The Surfer's Kafkaesque absurdity. The film's ending comes without his character exacting the ultimate revenge we might have expected and without one of those head-bursts-into-Ghost Rider-flames explosions of Cage rage that have become the actor's trademark. But, like Wake in Fright's outsider driven to madness by the locals, Cage takes his descent into some very unsavoury places. At one point in his disintegration into delirium he flirts with eating a dead rat, then he uses it as a weapon (Look out for the line "Eat the rat!" coming to a Cage meme near you). There's also a scene involving a nest of bird eggs that takes you all the way back to 1989 and his cockroach-eating scene in Vampire's Kiss. Like Walkabout, Finnegan lays on deliberately discomforting cutaway close-ups to cackling kookaburras, shrieking cicadas and echidnas clawing at the earth. The flies - drawn to Cage's sunburn and sweat make-up ("there was a lot of fake sweat") - were an authentic bonus. "We were just lucky with the flies," he laughs. "I thought we were lucky. I don't think the actors thought that." Like many in Ireland and the UK, the filmmaker (whose previous films include Jesse Eisenberg sci-fi horror Vivarium and Eva Green thriller Nocebo) grew up with sunshine-filled Aussie soaps like Home & Away and Neighbours. He seems to relish the suggestion his pulpy psychodrama flips that image on its ugly edge and plays like Home & Away on crack. "Yes, the score for the film by Franois Tetaz, for the scene where Nic is walking around drinking out of puddles and eating bird eggs, has a piece of music called Clam's Casino that actually has flavours of Skippy in it." What's that, Skip? The outsiders have stolen your banjo-and-harmonica innocence and turned it into a demented riff on dinkum tribalism? Tsk tsk! "I hope everyone has tough enough skin to know that it's only a bit of craic." Irish director Lorcan Finnegan smiles as he ponders the possibility that Australians will baulk, and maybe even bristle, at his unflattering depiction of tribal and toxic Ocker Aussies in his trippy psychological thriller The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage. Filmed in Yallingup, the home of surf champ Taj Burrow near Busselton in Western Australia, The Surfer sets Cage on a sun-baked slow boil as a returning expat who's made an offer on a big house overlooking the idyllic beach where he grew up. He dreams that coming home to Luna Bay will bring him closer to his son and maybe save his marriage. But the thuggish gang of local surfers here won't let "outsiders" like him ride the waves, so bonding with his boy on their surfboards isn't looking likely. "Locals only", the beach signs warn. "Don't live here, don't surf here" the menacing Bay Boys growl to his face. But as the abuse of the louts escalates - beating him up, stealing his surfboard, vandalising his Lexus - Cage, desperately driven by ego, alienation and an aching sense of nostalgia, won't let it go and sets up camp in the carpark above the beach. It's a sweaty, chafing, dementedly macho scenario of sometimes surreal savagery cooked up with fiendish glee by Finnegan and scriptwriter (and fellow Irishman) Thomas Martin to push Cage to breaking point. As the hallucinogenic effects of blistering sun and extreme heat and the humiliations meted out by alpha male Julian McMahon's cult of bogan bullies pile up, he loses his fancy watch, his phone charger, his shoes and, inevitably, his mind. Those strange distortions staring back at him in the metal mirror in the carpark toilet block begin to feel frighteningly real. Partially inspired by the aggressively territorial Lunada Bay Boys, a surf gang that notoriously claimed a stretch of Californian coast as their own, the film's more recognisable reference is a retro B-movie visual style and gonzo tone that evokes Australian New Wave films of the 1970s. Think Wake in Fright (1971), The Last Wave (1977) and Long Weekend (1978). Finnegan calls The Surfer's vibe "strange and dreamy" but there's a riptide of horror running through the cinematography of Radek Ladczuk (The Babadook, The Nightingale) and the eerily off-kilter score by Franois Tétaz (Wolf Creek). Wake In Fright, Ted Kotcheff's skin-crawling portrait of an ugly Australia (notorious for its kangaroo hunt sequence and notable for being Chips Rafferty's final film and Jack Thompson's first), is an unmistakable influence. With its own animalistic grotesquery, The Surfer plays like Wake in Fright in wetsuits. "When I started filmmaking, Australian New Wave and Ozploitation films were a massive inspiration," Finnegan says. "My very first film Without Name was inspired by Picnic At Hanging Rock, the Peter Weir film, and Colin Eggleston's Long Weekend. "So for this film, yeah, we were watching a lot of Wake in Fright and also Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout. Those films have the tradition of the outsider. Not only the outsider as a character, but the outsider as the filmmaker going to Australia and making a very Australian film - with Nic Roeg being British and Ted Kotcheff being Canadian." But Finnegan insists he didn't set out to hold up a warped public toilet mirror to Australians. "This isn't a critique of Australia," he says. "It's about a very specific group of people on this beach. To me, these guys are almost part of the Jungian journey that Nic Cage's character has to go on ... they are representative of some sort of shadow self within him. What he believes he wants at the beginning of the film is just this materialist goal of owning this house and that will fix all of his problems and his relationships. They have to be mean to him because, as they say, before you can surf you must suffer. To me these characters are almost caricatures [and] ... poking fun at that sort of hypermasculinity and the male ego in crisis." Cage, the Oscar-winner for 1995's Leaving Las Vegas who relished playing a version of his kooky self in 2022's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, leans hard into The Surfer's Kafkaesque absurdity. The film's ending comes without his character exacting the ultimate revenge we might have expected and without one of those head-bursts-into-Ghost Rider-flames explosions of Cage rage that have become the actor's trademark. But, like Wake in Fright's outsider driven to madness by the locals, Cage takes his descent into some very unsavoury places. At one point in his disintegration into delirium he flirts with eating a dead rat, then he uses it as a weapon (Look out for the line "Eat the rat!" coming to a Cage meme near you). There's also a scene involving a nest of bird eggs that takes you all the way back to 1989 and his cockroach-eating scene in Vampire's Kiss. Like Walkabout, Finnegan lays on deliberately discomforting cutaway close-ups to cackling kookaburras, shrieking cicadas and echidnas clawing at the earth. The flies - drawn to Cage's sunburn and sweat make-up ("there was a lot of fake sweat") - were an authentic bonus. "We were just lucky with the flies," he laughs. "I thought we were lucky. I don't think the actors thought that." Like many in Ireland and the UK, the filmmaker (whose previous films include Jesse Eisenberg sci-fi horror Vivarium and Eva Green thriller Nocebo) grew up with sunshine-filled Aussie soaps like Home & Away and Neighbours. He seems to relish the suggestion his pulpy psychodrama flips that image on its ugly edge and plays like Home & Away on crack. "Yes, the score for the film by Franois Tetaz, for the scene where Nic is walking around drinking out of puddles and eating bird eggs, has a piece of music called Clam's Casino that actually has flavours of Skippy in it." What's that, Skip? The outsiders have stolen your banjo-and-harmonica innocence and turned it into a demented riff on dinkum tribalism? Tsk tsk! "I hope everyone has tough enough skin to know that it's only a bit of craic." Irish director Lorcan Finnegan smiles as he ponders the possibility that Australians will baulk, and maybe even bristle, at his unflattering depiction of tribal and toxic Ocker Aussies in his trippy psychological thriller The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage. Filmed in Yallingup, the home of surf champ Taj Burrow near Busselton in Western Australia, The Surfer sets Cage on a sun-baked slow boil as a returning expat who's made an offer on a big house overlooking the idyllic beach where he grew up. He dreams that coming home to Luna Bay will bring him closer to his son and maybe save his marriage. But the thuggish gang of local surfers here won't let "outsiders" like him ride the waves, so bonding with his boy on their surfboards isn't looking likely. "Locals only", the beach signs warn. "Don't live here, don't surf here" the menacing Bay Boys growl to his face. But as the abuse of the louts escalates - beating him up, stealing his surfboard, vandalising his Lexus - Cage, desperately driven by ego, alienation and an aching sense of nostalgia, won't let it go and sets up camp in the carpark above the beach. It's a sweaty, chafing, dementedly macho scenario of sometimes surreal savagery cooked up with fiendish glee by Finnegan and scriptwriter (and fellow Irishman) Thomas Martin to push Cage to breaking point. As the hallucinogenic effects of blistering sun and extreme heat and the humiliations meted out by alpha male Julian McMahon's cult of bogan bullies pile up, he loses his fancy watch, his phone charger, his shoes and, inevitably, his mind. Those strange distortions staring back at him in the metal mirror in the carpark toilet block begin to feel frighteningly real. Partially inspired by the aggressively territorial Lunada Bay Boys, a surf gang that notoriously claimed a stretch of Californian coast as their own, the film's more recognisable reference is a retro B-movie visual style and gonzo tone that evokes Australian New Wave films of the 1970s. Think Wake in Fright (1971), The Last Wave (1977) and Long Weekend (1978). Finnegan calls The Surfer's vibe "strange and dreamy" but there's a riptide of horror running through the cinematography of Radek Ladczuk (The Babadook, The Nightingale) and the eerily off-kilter score by Franois Tétaz (Wolf Creek). Wake In Fright, Ted Kotcheff's skin-crawling portrait of an ugly Australia (notorious for its kangaroo hunt sequence and notable for being Chips Rafferty's final film and Jack Thompson's first), is an unmistakable influence. With its own animalistic grotesquery, The Surfer plays like Wake in Fright in wetsuits. "When I started filmmaking, Australian New Wave and Ozploitation films were a massive inspiration," Finnegan says. "My very first film Without Name was inspired by Picnic At Hanging Rock, the Peter Weir film, and Colin Eggleston's Long Weekend. "So for this film, yeah, we were watching a lot of Wake in Fright and also Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout. Those films have the tradition of the outsider. Not only the outsider as a character, but the outsider as the filmmaker going to Australia and making a very Australian film - with Nic Roeg being British and Ted Kotcheff being Canadian." But Finnegan insists he didn't set out to hold up a warped public toilet mirror to Australians. "This isn't a critique of Australia," he says. "It's about a very specific group of people on this beach. To me, these guys are almost part of the Jungian journey that Nic Cage's character has to go on ... they are representative of some sort of shadow self within him. What he believes he wants at the beginning of the film is just this materialist goal of owning this house and that will fix all of his problems and his relationships. They have to be mean to him because, as they say, before you can surf you must suffer. To me these characters are almost caricatures [and] ... poking fun at that sort of hypermasculinity and the male ego in crisis." Cage, the Oscar-winner for 1995's Leaving Las Vegas who relished playing a version of his kooky self in 2022's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, leans hard into The Surfer's Kafkaesque absurdity. The film's ending comes without his character exacting the ultimate revenge we might have expected and without one of those head-bursts-into-Ghost Rider-flames explosions of Cage rage that have become the actor's trademark. But, like Wake in Fright's outsider driven to madness by the locals, Cage takes his descent into some very unsavoury places. At one point in his disintegration into delirium he flirts with eating a dead rat, then he uses it as a weapon (Look out for the line "Eat the rat!" coming to a Cage meme near you). There's also a scene involving a nest of bird eggs that takes you all the way back to 1989 and his cockroach-eating scene in Vampire's Kiss. Like Walkabout, Finnegan lays on deliberately discomforting cutaway close-ups to cackling kookaburras, shrieking cicadas and echidnas clawing at the earth. The flies - drawn to Cage's sunburn and sweat make-up ("there was a lot of fake sweat") - were an authentic bonus. "We were just lucky with the flies," he laughs. "I thought we were lucky. I don't think the actors thought that." Like many in Ireland and the UK, the filmmaker (whose previous films include Jesse Eisenberg sci-fi horror Vivarium and Eva Green thriller Nocebo) grew up with sunshine-filled Aussie soaps like Home & Away and Neighbours. He seems to relish the suggestion his pulpy psychodrama flips that image on its ugly edge and plays like Home & Away on crack. "Yes, the score for the film by Franois Tetaz, for the scene where Nic is walking around drinking out of puddles and eating bird eggs, has a piece of music called Clam's Casino that actually has flavours of Skippy in it." What's that, Skip? The outsiders have stolen your banjo-and-harmonica innocence and turned it into a demented riff on dinkum tribalism? Tsk tsk!
