The Surfer Review: LFF 2024

Nic Cage’s batshit Ozploitation movie is an obscene amount of fun

Nicolas Cage’s B-movie renaissance continues at full stroke with this hyper saturated ode to 70’s exploitation films. A film that’s guaranteed to bemuse some audiences as much as it delights others, you just have to get on board with the vibes of The Surfer if you’re going to have a good time. (And I had a really good time.)

Cage’s unnamed character (credited only as ‘’The Surfer’’) has moved back to his native Australia after some decades spent in the USA (does he attempt an Australian accent? Of course he doesn’t) and is in the process of buying back his expensive childhood home overlooking the beach. With the sale nearly complete, all he wants to do is take his teenage son surfing on the beach he grew up on. But things don’t quite go to plan.

The Surfer and his son are scared off the beach by a gang called the ‘’bay boys,’’ a cult like group with a charismatic leader named Scally (Julian McMahon) who insist that it’s a local spot for local people only. Despite Cage’s connection to the area, they don’t consider him one of them. With the desire to surf that particular beach wrapped up in his desperation to regain the childhood home he lost, Cage becomes obsessed with getting access; camping out at a carpark overlook and getting into regular confrontations with the gang. While all the locals seem completely in league and at ease with the gang’s violent behaviour, his only ally is the homeless man who calls the car park home.

The latest film from Irish director Lorcan Finnegan, The Surfer deals with themes of toxic masculinity and the evils of capitalism. Bad guy Scally is closer to Tyler Durden than Bodhi from Point Break, preaching to his devoted followers that to be a true man is to suffer and toughen up. Despite being a surf gang, they’re made up of the town’s biggest landowners, and despite Cage wanting to get them back for humiliating him he is also looking to buy his way into this weird and antisocial community.

For all that there might some serious themes at its heart, The Surfer is wrapped up in an extremely silly premise that sets out to do nothing more than entertain. Cage goes through a series of trials and torments and as time seems to distort, we start to question what we’re seeing. Storylines of the father and son, businessmen and vagrant all blend and overlap as this one-man vendetta against some surf bros starts to ramp up uncontrollably and Cage risks throwing away everything he has worked for in his quest for revenge.

It’s all captured in brilliantly bright hues of blue and orange and set to a twinkly, wind chime heavy score from François Tétaz that makes the whole thing feel just outside of reality. A delirious, fever dream of a film with a clear creative vision at its heart and a logic that’s best not to examine too closely.

The Surfer does perhaps lose a little momentum towards the end and could have been cut 10 minutes shorter, but it’s a on the whole a perfect vehicle for Cage whose energy is measured just right here as he careens towards his inevitable blow-up ending. With fight scenes, animal attacks, bullshit surfer theology and the chance to see Cage eat some really gross stuff, The Surfer is an instant midnight movie classic. This campy Ozploitation is a serious amount of fun.

The Surfer is playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2024. It’s expected to hit cinemas in early 2025