I’ve enjoyed the self-aware Nic Cage experience, post tax evasion. Yes he’ll do the direct to trash streamer occasionally, but most of the time he’s picking weird projects to show off different parts of his persona. The Surfer is in line with Cage’s other simple enigmatic titles like Pig, or Mandy, or Renfield; it’s not in their league…but thankfully, Cage has found way to raise his low bar so even his messy pictures are still worth a watch.
Nicholas Cage…is….The Surfer. Our surfer is back in his hometown, excited to purchase his old home, and take his kid (Finn Little) surfing on the beach he longs to revisit. Unfortunately, that bonding experience is cut short by Scally (Julian McMahon) and his Pitbull (Alexander Bertrand, not really a dog, but he essentially is channeling one): ‘DON’T LIVE HERE, DON’T SURF HERE!” Being a week before Christmas, the kid takes off for his mom’s (surfer’s ex) house, but our lead is determined to get that home, and surf his dreams, waiting in the parking lot for the right moment to get his chance.
I can see why Cage wanted to do The Surfer outside of the obvious mini vacation he probably got. Unlike the other characters he’s been playing excellently recently, this one really lets him dive in and evolve a character over the course of the film. While The Surfer is the right title, the pitch to people interested is “Nicholas Cage goes through Dante’s 9 Circles of Hell, or the Book of Job.” When we first meet Cage, Pitbull and Scally would definitely call him a beta, b*tch, p*ssy, cuck or something even more cruel. It’s not like he’s a bad guy: he’s just a businessman waxing nostalgic for his childhood again. But time away has made the surfer “soft” as Scally would see him. Everytime the surfer develops some sort of coping routine to capture that figurative and metaphorical wave he’s chasing, new roadblocks get put in his way, slowly transforming our guy. Now if were hoping Cage would go insta crazy and start the insanity off with the rest of the cast, that is not this film. Cage makes this evolution slow but believable, as our businessman surfer Cage connects to tribal man’s man Nic Cage by the end of the movie, the best part of the film.
I think that increasing higher floor Nic has been setting for his films though doesn’t help The Surfer. I like the general concept of having Cage do a study on the effects of guttural masculinity and if it’s toxic or not, but we take a really long time to get there. And a very, prolonged, strained set of circumstances that become more and more untethered from reality, but not in a fun way, more in a way that threatens to unravel the film. Cage’s performance keeps you there, leading to the big swings of the last 20 minutes, but by that point I was getting fidgety in my chair waiting for when the credits were gonna roll. The script’s study of toxic masculinity almost works, but it’s not quite as smart as Pig in delivering its message, and leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste in your mouth when you start thinking about it a little deeper.
But all in all, I’m happy with this raised bar. Keep picking projects like this Mr. Cage. I welcome your off kilter indy film that comes out once every couple years. While Tom Cruise has thrust the big tentpole movie experience on his back, Cage has done the same for the little films, and we’re all the better for it, especially with 2026’s next Cage experience: Bowler. Ok I made that up… or did I?