The Surfer: Review
Mr. Cage, you’ve done it again. You trapped me in a heat stroke fever dream that took on a peculiar ride through a parking lot. A battle between reality, fiction, and the manosphere gives Toby a house to be close to a woman who doesn’t love him anymore. Let’s get into it.
I didn’t hear much about The Surfer going into it, nor did anyone else because I was the only one in the theater. But while I sat there by myself, eating the Chik Fil-A sandwich I snuck in, I was pleasantly surprised. There’s no way to talk about this movie without giving it all away, so that’s precisely what I’m gonna do. SPOILERS! See the film, then see what I say or don’t.
Quick Overview: Man wants to win his family back by buying his childhood home right on the hills of a surfers cove. But the locals ban anyone from surfing their waves and intruding on their sand, so they torture Nic in hopes he’ll fuck off. You’ll quickly find out he does not. He has one goal: to right the wrongs of his childhood and essentially avenge his father's suicide.
The Surfer is about as indie as it gets. It has one big star, one location, and sick cinematography. The movie uses its limitations to its advantage; we get the most out of the location by visiting every inch of it. Skimming through the internet, I haven’t been able to find a budget, but I can’t imagine it was more than 10 million dollars.
Something I enjoyed about the movie is how they used Nic Cage’s clothes. He starts with a clean suit, but as the film goes on and as his life increasingly falls apart, so do his clothes. His shoes and jacket get stolen, coffee and dirt stain his shirt, and it gets to a point where the locals think he’s one of the homeless dudes running around. He can’t catch a break, and he can’t get comfortable. He has to reach rock bottom, and what we assumed was torture turns out to be a lesson.
I brought up the manosphere earlier, and the Top G and primary antagonist in this movie would be Scally, a pseudo-life coach who needs to make sure Nic is cut out to live in his neighborhood. He and his dudes are dicks; they don’t let any out-of-towners touch their sand without a punch to the face. In the spirit of limiting spoilers, let's just say Nic isn’t the only one their actions have affected.
What do I think? I liked it. It seems like a movie I would write. It makes you think; you start to doubt whether the first part of the movie was real or if it was all in his head. They put the protagonist through the psychological ringer on this one. I’d be lying if I said it was perfect; it’s not. There are many great moments in it, and the movies look fantastic, but it might’ve been a bit too long. Plus, there are some moments that would make complete sense for him to just leave the premises, but then we wouldn’t have a movie, so I get it. All performances were great and Nic Cage killed it. Nonetheless, it was a very quality and interesting movie, but it did not perform like one.
This movie should’ve gone straight to streaming. I go to the movies every week, and I don’t think I have seen a single trailer for this thing. It’s also playoff time in sports, and again, I did not see a single trailer for this thing. I only knew about it through some film accounts I follow on Instagram, and upon further inspection, it seemed like something I’d be interested in. Sadly, this good movie bombed majorly; rumor has it it didn’t even make 1 million dollars on opening weekend. If it was put on like Netflix there would be built in promo through live events like WWE, and their built in advertising machine, I could easily see this being the #1 on the ‘Movies Today’ list. I don’t like that a quality and original movie like this failed.
Like I said it’s not a perfect movie, but I’m glad it exists. Hopefully, it can gain new life once it reaches streaming, and no matter how it performs financially, the crew should be proud that they made a good movie.
The Surfer gets a Dyl score of 7/10.
