Nicolas Cage is one of those actors where you know that even if the movie he’s in isn’t good, it at least won’t be boring. His latest film, The Surfer, had the potential to be something really special — a throwback to an oft-forgotten wing of exploitation cinema. While there are enough intriguing elements to make this worth a watch, The Surfer is a very frustrating experience (albeit purposefully so).
The Surfer Review
The Surfer follows a man who returns to his hometown hoping to surf with his son, only to find himself at war with a local gang of surfers who try to torment him to his breaking point. Inspired by the John Cheever short story The Swimmer (and its Burt Lancaster adaptation), the movie becomes a surreal psychological thriller that feels almost like a drug-free trip.
Like the rest of Finnegan’s work, The Surfer is an incredibly bleak film. There is some twisted tongue-in-cheek humor — mostly uneasy laughter at the absurd, disturbing things the character is subjected to — but for the most part, audiences will be squirming. You are literally watching someone being tortured for the better part of 100 minutes.
Because of this, the pacing of The Surfer is abysmal. It’s obvious that Finnegan and Martin want the audience to walk away from the movie feeling disoriented and frustrated — as if they had been baking in the sun for days alongside Cage’s protagonist. However, upsetting and uncomfortable only work if there is meaning attached to these feelings, and since The Surfer never reaches the required depth, it feels like it is treading water for most of its runtime.
The biggest issue with Thomas Martin’s script is that it can’t settle on a cohesive theme. On its surface, it’s clear that The Surfer is a commentary on localism — a very timely theme that could resonate especially well with American audiences considering the xenophobia in the country right now towards immigrants. However, the film introduces a subplot that explores toxic masculinity, and this aspect not only feels underdeveloped but also convolutes the main theme.
Cage’s performance in the lead role isn’t even all that memorable. There are a few line readings in the movie — including one that will go down as iconic — that lean into Cage’s lunacy, but for the most part, this role isn’t all that interesting for him. Most of the film is spent watching him get emasculated, and it’s more fun to watch him in his roles where he’s crazy and aggressive than this one, where he’s crazy and desperate.
The more interesting turn in the movie is that of Julian McMahon (Fantastic Four, Nip/Tuck), who is so fun to watch as a villain. His character and performance feels like a throwback to the baddies of Ozploitation classics: a charming facade with a relentlessly vicious dark streak. However, McMahon also makes this archetype his own, infusing it with shades of Andrew Tate and similar machismo influencers that give the film a modern, relevant edge.
Cinematographer Radek Ladczuk and editor Tony Cranstoun also deserve a lot of credit for putting their modern spins on the classic style of the genre The Surfer pays homage to. They create a world that feels slightly distanced from our own, with the vibe of an Ozploitation flick but a very modern sensibility.
This atmosphere is further aided by François Tétaz’s score, which will certainly go down as some of the year’s most underrated film music. Tétaz combines the sounds of surf rock with some synthy, psychedelic tones. The result is compositions that feel very warm and inviting yet also slightly uncomfortable, helping to put us in the dreamy headspace of the characters.
Is The Surfer worth watching?
The Surfer is not meant to be fun by any means, but watching it should not feel quite as torturous as the acts being inflicted on the protagonist. It’s a very strong film visually, but those hoping for a fun Nic Cage homage to exploitation films will likely be frustrated by how repetitive and grating this can be.
The Surfer premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival, which ran March 7-15 in Austin, TX.
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