Content warning: This review contains mentions of suicide.
This review contains spoilers.
As a paranoia-induced trip through the psyche of a broken man, “The Surfer” condemns dogmatic loyalty to masculinity in favor of familial relationships. Its tropic aesthetic mixed with its bipolar tone creates a singular cinematic experience that should not be missed.
The opening title of the film reads “Nicolas Cage is the Surfer,” yet the actor, who plays an unnamed surfer, surfs maybe once throughout the movie’s runtime. Instead, Director Lorcan Finnegan focused on The Surfer’s psyche and how it relates to the environment of the Australian beach town the film is set in. The movie has a dreamlike, fragmented structure that abruptly bounces from reality to hallucination.
“The Surfer” begins with Cage returning to his hometown on the Australian coast, hoping to close a deal on his childhood home and surf with his son the same day. When The Surfer goes to do what his name suggests, a local surfer, or “Bay Boy,” says, “Don’t live here, don’t surf here.”
He’s then forced off the beach and his son leaves, but little does The Surfer know his nightmare is only beginning. For the rest of the movie, the Bay Boys keep him from the beach, tormenting and gaslighting him under the commands of their leader, Cage’s childhood foe Scally (Julian McMahon).
When I think about this movie, I keep coming back to the unsettling images dispersed throughout the movie of Cage holding a gun to his head, contemplating suicide, alluding to Cage’s eventual death. What better way for his brain to give him closure than to take him back to his birthplace, his home?
To me, the movie is a creation of The Surfer’s brain in order to cope with the moments that led him to end his life. It’s revealed to the audience that Cage is newly divorced and his ex-partner is expecting a child with a new husband. The Surfer is unable to purchase his childhood home he’s dreamt his whole life of buying, he’s unhappy in his career and his son dislikes him.
Weirdly enough, The Surfer’s way of addressing these problems is by avoiding them, instead choosing to stay on the beach he surfed on as a young lad. As if it were a dream, every time he has the chance to leave, he just can’t. It’s as if he’s stuck there forever.
In his nightmarish mental trip, The Surfer is forced to confront his own masculinity when he’s coerced into joining the Bay Boys after defeating one of them in an oceanfront fight. Yet soon after joining, The Surfer is faced with the choice between his son or the masculine brotherhood of the cult.
He chooses his son and together they surf off into the sunset. But… why? Well, a look into the psyche of The Surfer and men struggling with masculinity might hold the answer.
Scally serves as the role model for men of the town. He shares many similarities with modern day manosphere conmen, championing physical combat, suffering before success and predatory activities involving women. He even has a large following on social media. Finnegan portrays Scally as just what he is, a conman, but he still exhibits how vulnerable men might be seduced by grifters like him.
Cage begins the movie wealthy and wishing to have a day at the beach with his son, but once he becomes downtrodden and rejected by the small beach town community, he falls to the whim of the Bay Boys’ mirage of masculinity. Here, Finnegan points out the malicious nature of manosphere influencers who prey upon angry, destitute men exploiting their vices for their own gain.
In a media space already packed to the brim with gendered political discussion, it’s hard to see how a movie addressing such topics is necessary. Will it just get thrown back into the bin of redundant masculinity debates? What differentiates “The Surfer” from the other thousands of gender discussions found from just one YouTube search is its core themes.
Cage’s decision to choose his son over the cult, combined with his character wrestling with masculinity, reveals the crux of the “The Surfer”: Nothing can fill the void of a lack of familial love. No cult or promise of brotherhood can give The Surfer the bonds with his family he truly needs.
Once he surfs off into the sunset, he’s finally at peace. He didn’t end his life because of some masculinity crisis; he did it because he lost the favor of his family.
“The Surfer” is a topical deconstruction of a broken man’s masculinity that allows viewers to enjoy themselves in the process. Its tranquil beach setting juxtaposed with the hectic, paranoia contained in the film creates a truly nightmarish experience. It’s a must watch.
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