“Dude That’s my board and I want it back!”
If you are both a Nicolas Cage fan and a surfer, then perhaps that’s the kind of line you’ve always dreamed of hearing.
Set around Yallingup in West Australia, ‘The Surfer’ focuses on a middle-aged family man who has returned to the beach where he grew up surfing, to buy a house. We soon learn his dream is to ride a few waves alongside his son, who is a promising surfer. Things get weird from there.
As a curious piece of trivia, Cage leased Taj Burrow’s house while he was making the movie. Taj’s multi-story, fun palace looks directly over the water at Yallingup.
The Surfer’s plans soon run into closeout sets when he is confronted by a tribe of fiercely territorial locals. The first thing they do is take his board – and so we get the line above.
Led by Svengali figure, Scally (played by a very bronzed Julian McMahon), the locals have evolved into a kind of ultra-macho cult that gets off on masochistic rituals like branding. Their strange rituals feel like a quest to reclaim their masculine identity.
While the film turns up the volume on the kind of excessive localism that really does exist at some surf breaks, it also has a surreal, heightened reality feel to it. It’s arthouse- bizarre rather than a lame attempt to accurately portray surf culture. Aside from a couple of waves, the film features almost no surfing action. The more over the top scenes border on farcical as Cage gets deeper into the character of the unhinged loner.
There’s no direct mention of it, but Scally’s surf gang also seem to take some of their cues from the modern gaggle of male, online influencers who have generated a following by preaching a hyper-masculine and often misogynistic message. While they get a couple of things wrong (like the way Cage holds his board) it’s not one of those films where you feel obligated to scrutinise every detail and find fault with the representation of surfing. Surfing is just a plausible framework through which to explore a more classical theme – one man vs the world or at least vs the menacing gang. ‘The Surfer’ is much more ‘Mad Max’ than ‘Blue Crush’ or ‘Breath’. Astute viewers of Australian film will also see the influence of classics like ‘Wake in Fright’ and ‘Walkabout’.
Ultimately, ‘The Surfer’ is a slightly bent, tension building thriller well worth checking out. While making you laugh and cringe at Cage’s antics, ‘The Surfer’ will also prompt you to consider your own tribal tendencies, and how much you identify with the lone, hero figure? Nick Cage holds your attention with a typically original interpretation of the role, and the raw-edged Australian characters play well against his earnest American tone.
‘The Surfer’ really is a chance to watch the unpredictable Nicolas Cage play a man slowly unravelling in a beach car park. Faced by the relentless menace of Scally and his gang how long will he cling to his dream of buying the home and simply going surfing?
‘The Surfer’ is available in streaming platform, Stan.
