Last year's Cannes Film Festival saw the release of psychological thriller, The Surfer by Irish director, Lorcan Finnegan. Nearly a year later, the film is still on its festival run, this time arriving at SXSW in Austin, Texas, still shocking audiences with its unorthodox structure, chaotic writing, and magnetic lead performance by the always enigmatic Nicolas Cage.
I expected The Surfer to be an average narrative film. When it premiered at Cannes last May it barely made any noise at the festival, receiving mostly mixed reviews from audiences. I was shocked to hear it would be playing at SXSW this year, a full nine months after its official premiere, and even more shocked to see that the theater was filled to the brim with eager viewers.
The Surfer stars Nicolas Cage as an unnamed wealthy man, returning to his hometown, Luna Bay, on the coast of Australia, hoping to buy back his childhood home. When he arrives at Luna Bay, he is confronted by a barrage of hostile locals determined to make his life as miserable as possible. Over the course of the film, Cage's character is verbally and physically abused, stolen from, and gaslit into insanity. We see him go from a dignified human to a babbling hermit.
The film is at times very hard to watch because its largely just an innocent man being tortured for ninety minutes with no end in sight. As the film goes on the visuals and story get more and more trippy and unorthodox. The audience begins to wonder whether any of this is real, if the main character is truly who he says he is, if there's something much more sinister going on in Luna Bay. As a viewer, I found myself conjuring a million different possible theories in my head for what was actually happening. By the end I still didn't have a clear answer.
The Surfer is a collaborative project between Ireland and Australia, being filmed entirely in Yallingup, Western Australia. Despite having a disjointed and at times confusing plot, the film is beautifully shot, with cinematography and editing being done by both Radzek Ladczuk and Tony Cranstoun respectively. The film plays with vibrant, experimental lighting. Aesthetically, the film is gorgeous, a feast for the senses.
A lot of the film's charm rests on Nicolas Cage's performance as the titular character. Cage has a knack for uplifting films like this into cult classics and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if this went down in history as a fan favorite of his. It's easy for the audience to sympathize with his pain and misery even though we don't even know his name. Co-star, Julian McMahon also brings a lot of charisma to his role in the same way a cult leader would. His character is detestable and intimidating, McMahon utterly shines in the role.
The Surfer is an over-the-top, sometimes ridiculous film that doesn't spoon feed you any answers. Although, Nicolas Cage does try to force feed someone a dead rat. It's an emotional rollercoaster that truly needs to be seen to be believed and whether or not you enjoy it, it'll stay on your mind long after the credits roll.
After nearly a year of touring film festivals around the world, The Surfer receives a wide theatrical release in the United States starting May 2nd, 2025.
Comentários