08-05-2025
Ego Under the Sun. Nicolas Cage is swell as The Surfer
"You're just not meant to be here..."
Well, if you are a Nicolas Cage fan, you are definitely in the right place, as this ego-under-the-Sun psychodrama ranks with his best of recent years. In Irish director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium), the screen legend has found another filmmaker who brings out the best in him.
Cage's Man with No Name returns to the beautiful Australian beach of his early years, all set to buy his childhood home overlooking the bay. And then everything falls apart as he roasts alive in a car park.
If there's a more beautiful location on this Earth than Yallingup, Western Australia, well, send us a postcard. The Surfer is a gorgeous-looking film that juxtaposes stunning views with menace - both ecological and psychological. True to Aussie form, the landscape becomes a leading character, and Cage's hapless blow-in also has to contend with gimlet-eyed locals who seem determined to make his stay a short one. Faraway beaches are always gold...
In Irish writer Thomas Martin's screenplay, there are elements of both the Western genre and the unleash-the-fury dynamics of the vigilante movie, but The Surfer also manages to skewer guru notions, property porn, and the arrival fallacy that sees so many of us struggling to keep our heads above water. "It's all building to this breaking point," Cage says prophetically.
Clocking in at 100 minutes (maybe 10 too long), The Surfer is one of those films where you're always wondering about the next indignity that awaits the sweat-soaked mess at its centre. What happens when a success story loses his identity and the possessions he holds so dear? Pull up a deckchair here and find out as Cage goes through all the gears as only he can. By the end, you'll feel like you've been staring at the sky for too long.
