The Surfer (2024)

	Directed by: Lorcan Finnegan	COUNTRY Australia/Ireland Genre Psychological thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE The Surfer RUNNING TIME 100 minutes
	Produced by: Leonora Darby James Harris Robert Connolly James Grandison Brunella Cocchiglia Nicolas Cage Nathan Klingher
	Written by: Thomas Martin

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
The Surfer	Nicolas Cage	½
Scally	Julian McMahon
The Bum	Nic Cassim
The Photographer	Miranda Tapsell	-
Pitbull	Alexander Bertrand	-
The Cop	Justin Rosniak	-
The Kid	Finn Little	-
The Estate Agent	Rahel Romahn	-

Review

Nicolas Cage plays a seemingly successful family man and hobby surfer who returns to the Australian beach of his childhood, now ruled by a machismo gang of surfers. What follows is the mother of all downward spirals, shot through Irish director Lorcan Finnegan's lush, distorted lens. It's meant to be so dejecting that you alternately chuckle at the misery and cling onto the last flicker of hope – but the tone shifts don't really work, making the preposterous narrative and supporting characters come off as outlandish without the sorely needed fun. The film's postulations about localism and culture turning into cultism are so superficially explored and portrayed that you immediately realise they're there only to serve the film's setup: to subject the protagonist to as much humiliation as possible. The end result is neither fish nor fowl. There's minimal suspense or chilling atmosphere, and also not much to ponder regarding surfing, belonging, finding your inner strength, or any of the other clichés and allegories the film flippantly touches upon.