O Surfista

There isn't any genre Nicholas Cage hasn't tried, be it action, horror, or just plain odd, like this entry that feels a bit like a cross between his remake of The Wicker Man and that old British series The Prisoner. Nic plays a realtor taking his son surfing out on an Australian beach, with hopes of securing his father's old property nearby for them to live in. But through various time slips, increasingly desperate calls to his broker friend, and encounters with bullying kids, uncomprehending locals and an ominous, Reaperesque interlocutor who brings up grim facts of his past, he slowly loses his moorings and becomes a stranded, demented wanderer of the area, insisting on some version of life that doesn't jive with reality. The camera work and soundtrack are like Tarantino at his most intentionally kitsch, but as The White Lotus has shown the wilderness of middle-age is a fertile field of sad psychological exploration. Thank you Nic for yet another bold choice in a jaded cinema era of tired franchises, endless reboots and mind-numbing tripe.

Being married to an Australian surfer in his late sixties we found this movie pathetic. The script, the culture, the acting. There was nothing good to say about this movie except Nicholas Chae managed to see most Australia native animals. A thing that many Australians would never see.

My husband grew up surfing through the 60s and 70s and still surfs today. It is sad to see this movie represent the Australian culture this way. It may be what happens in America. Yes there was localism, bullies and drugs, but never to this extreme. To make it look like a cult initiation is so far from anything I have ever experienced.

An hour and a half of our lives we will never get back.

That's the same headline I used for Longlegs. I continue to root for Cage and his resurgence over the past few years. I'm glad he's getting roles in theatrical movies. And I will still watch basically anything he's in.

The Surfer is a generally well-made movie and a stark contrast to the straight-to-streaming garbage he was busting out for a while. It has a simple premise that continues to evolve, with a decent amount of intrigue.

Overall, I wasn't a huge fan of this movie. It's a little too artistic and metaphorical for my liking. And I left the cinema a bit unsatisfied.

At least I had the pleasure of witnessing another memorable Cage performance.

(1 viewing, early screening Mystery Movie Monday 4/21/2025)

My daughter took me to see this movie as an 02 freebie and we weren't sure what to expect. We still weren't really sure what we thought after we had seen it either but it wasn't good. I am an avid movie fan and thought the acting, cinematography and location were all superb. There is definitely an interesting idea of a story somewhere in here but it never really manages to emerge. The movie seems to drift between several different possible storylines and or outcomes. You keep hoping there will be a moment of revelation that explains it all, but that just doesn't really happen.

My advice, would be don't bother, there are better things to do with a couple of hours nearly, like cleaning an oven.

As many reviewers have already said, this is not what it seems at first, but more like a Kafkaesque nightmare, a bizarre psychological drama thriller with a strong darkly comedy element, borderline surrealistic and definitely much deeper than one might thinks reading the synopsis. I liked it a lot, it's thrilling all the way until the ending, it got my attention and it carried me away, making me empathize a lot with the protagonist. Nic Cage gave a strong acting performance, helped by the script: He's a well written character and the main factor of this movie's success.

It's not a great movie and i didn't love the final 20 minutes, i mean, this could go in different ways and the path they choose was safe and not that imaginative. Yet, it was not a bad ending, and it could have been much worse. This is a clever movie but i reckon it was difficult to find a proper ending.

I gave it 7 stars because any ambiguous movie which forces me to search for possible explanations/interpretations, deserves a high rating, in my books. I cared to know what this was all about, and that's a big positive. Some reviews were amazing, explaining the movie possibly even better than the ones who made it.

However, it's definitely not for everyone. And i wouldn't argue with someone who found this movie mediocre. Maybe i am the one who's reading too much into it.