Lorcan Finnegan Archives

Review: ‘The Surfer’ (2025), starring Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand and Justin Rosniak

May 2, 2025

by Carla Hay

Nicolas Cage in “The Surfer” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“The Surfer” (2025)

Directed by Lorcan Finegan

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Australia, the dramatic film “The Surfer” (a remake of the Telugu-language movie of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asian people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An Australian-born, American-raised businessman goes back to the Australian beach area where he spent part of his childhood so that he can go sufing, but he encounters a group of hostile, violent and terroritorial surfers who don’t want him to surf there.

Culture Audience: “The Surfer” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Nicolas Cage and suspenseful psychological thrillers where everything might not be what it seems.

Nicolas Cage and Julian McMahon in “The Surfer” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“The Surfer” evokes a moody fever dream where the protagonist is an unreliable narrator. This psychological thriller (about a man in conflict with a group of menacing surfers) is suspenseful but might be too weird or confusing for some viewers. It’s the type of movie that has enough to hold viewers’ interest, even if the ending of the film could be considered divisive.

Directed by Lorcan Finnegan and written by Thomas Martin, “The Surfer” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The movie subsequently made the rounds at several other film festivals, including the 2024 BFI London Film Festival and the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. “The Surfer” takes place in an unnamed city in Western Australia and was actually filmed in Yallingup, Australia.

“The Surfer” is a movie inspired by a mix of fact and fiction. In “The Surfer” production notes, Martin says he got inspiration for the screenplay from Australian writer Robert Drewe’s short stories; John Cheever’s 1964 short story “The Swimmer”; and the 1968 “The Swimmer” film adaptation, starring Burt Lancaster. “The Surfer” is also based on the true crime stories about the real-life surfing gang the Bay Boys, who were headquartered in Palos Verdes, California, and caused terror throughout the 1970s.

“The Surfer” begins by showing an unnamed businessman (played by Nicolas Cage) parked in a car with his teenage son Charlie (played by Finn Little) at Luna Bay, a beach area where this father spent the earliest years of his childhood. The man (who is identified only as The Surfer in the movie’s end credits) speaks reverentially about surfing and how it can teach important life lessons. This is the first time that The Surfer has brought Charlie (who is about 15 or 16 and is identified only as The Kid in the movie’s end credits) to Luna Bay, which The Surfer considers to be a very special place.

The Surfer wants to spend some time surfing with Charlie at Luna Bay. Charlie is not so enthusiastic and wonders out loud why his father told him to skip school for this excursion. The Surfer is in the area because the Lunda Bay house where he spent the earliest years of his childhood is now up for sale. The Surfer is obsessed with buying this house because it’s the last connection that he has to his father, who died when The Surfer was a boy.

Observant viewers will immediately notice that The Surfer has an American accent, while his son Charlie has an Australian accent. It’s explained later in the movie that The Surfer was born in Australia, but he and his mother moved to California after his father died. Charlie’s mother Helen (played by Patsy Knapp and voiced by Brenda Meaney) also has an American accent, which implies that The Surfer and Helen met in the United States but have been raising Charlie in Australia.

The Surfer and Helen have been separated for an untold period of time and are headed for a divorce. In a phone conversation shown later in the movie, Helen urgently asks The Surfer to sign the divorce papers because Helen wants to marry her boyfriend Derek, who is not seen or heard in the movie. Helen has another announcement for The Surfer that isn’t surprising because of how she wants this divorce to be final as quickly as possible.

The first indication that Luna Bay is an unfriendly place to strangers is when a man named Pitbull (played by Alexander Bertrand) brushes past The Surfer and snarls, “Fuck off,” even though The Surfer wasn’t bothering anyone. Just as The Surfer and Charlie are about to hit the waves on their surfboards, they are approached by hostile surfer known only as Blondie (played by Rory O’Keeffe), who gruffly says to these two out-of-town strangers: “Don’t live here, don’t surf here.”

It’s eventually revealed that Blondie is part of a Luna Bay all-male surfing gang called the Bay Boys. The gang’s leader is a wealthy heir named Scott” Scally” Callahan (played by Julian McMahon), who comes across as charming but it’s a mask for his true vicious personality. The Bay Boy gang members are extremely territorial about the beach and will instigate violent attacks on anyone who defies their orders to not surf at the beach. Scally runs the gang like a toxic fraternity, including having macho rituals, dangerous hazing initiations, and rowdy parties with plenty of alcohol and drugs.

Someone who’s a lot friendlier to The Surfer is an unnamed elderly homeless man (played by Nic Cassim), who is identified in the end credits only as The Bum. The Surfer and The Bum establish a rapport, partly because The Bum reminds The Surfer of The Surfer’s father. The Surfer also meets a friendly unnamed photographer (played by Miranda Tapsel) on the beach and has a brief conversation with her where he reveals that when he was young, he spent a number of years being as a surfer and travelogue writer

Someone who isn’t helpful at all (and is on the Bay Boys’ side) is an unnamed local cop (played by Justin Rosniak), who is called to the scene when The Surfer phones in a complaint about the Bay Boys assaulting The Surfer and stealing The Surfer’s surfboard. The cop does nothing about these crimes because he says that Scally’s family is too rich and influential. The corrupt cop also confirms Scally’s lie that the Bay Boys have had the surfboard on display at their beach shack for months. It’s also revealed that several local residents enable and excuse the Bay Boys’ reign of terror.

During this conflict with the Bay Boys, The Surfer becomes increasingly stressed-out about the sale of his childhood house. Early in the movie, the estate agent Mike (played by Rahel Romahn) told The Surfer in a phone conversation that a family has offered a better deal buy the house and pay $1.7 million in cash. The Surfer had made an offer to pay $1.6 million for the house and pleads for more time to match the other potential buyer’s offer. Mike gives Ther Surfer an extra two days to come up with the additional $100,000. Meanwhile, his mortgage broker (voiced by Greg McNeill) tells The Surfer that The Surfer’s credit is stretched to the limit.

It’s never stated what The Surfer does for a living, but he’s a businessman who has clients. He also seems to be successful because he drives a Lexus. But there are signs that The Surfer’s mental health has been unraveling, and his job could be in jeopardy. The Surfer has taken a personal day off from work to spend time with Charlie at Luna Bay on a day that The Surfer should have been in business meetings. A phone conversation with an office colleague reveals that The Surfer wasn’t wearing shoes and socks at a recent client meeting.

As the tension and anger start to build and boil over between The Surfer and the Bay Boys, some other things go wrong for The Surfer. In between, he has dream-like memories of his childhood. The movie’s cinematography is excellent at creating a retro idyllic glow to these scenes that seep into the story when The Surfer wants some escapism from his harsh reality. At several points in the movie, viewers might be asking, “Where is this story going?” How much you will enjoy “The Surfer” will depend on your curiosity to see how the movie ends.

Cage is known for playing a long list of eccentric characters. In “The Surfer,” he does an admirable job of not playing this character as too over-the-top (which is a major criticism that Cage has gotten for his recent performances) but as someone who has sides to himself that are not immediately apparent. McMahon also stands out as the villainous Scally, although there’s nothing complex about this evil character.

Looking beyond the obvious crime thriller aspects of the story, “The Surfer” also has subtle commentary about how outward appearances can be deceiving, when it come to who can be trusted as honest and credible. The Bum is often dismissed by people who think he’s mentally ill and worthless because of his physical appearance and his poverty, but he is a truth teller. That’s in contrast to The Surfer, who has the image of being a respectable businessman, but he could be telling lies to himself and to other people. “The Surfer” might disappoint some viewers looking for a straightforward and predictable story, but this film is actually an artistic depiction of how memories (good and bad) can shape someone’s reality in the past and present.

Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate released “The Surfer” in U.S. cinemas on May 2, 2025. The movie will be released in Australia on May 15, 2025.

Review: ‘Vivarium,’ starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots

March 27, 2020

by Carla Hay

“Vivarium”

Directed by Lorcan Finnegan

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in England, the sci-fi thriller “Vivarium” has an all-white cast representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: An unmarried couple who live together go to a mysterious housing development to look for a new home and find out that they can’t leave.

Culture Audience: “Vivarium” will appeal mostly to people who like unsettling suspense stories with a sci-fi angle.

Senan Jennings in “Vivarium” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate/Saban Films)

“Vivarium” is a somewhat haunting sci-fi thriller that’s meant to give people the creeps and/or anxiety throughout the entire film. The movie—directed by Lorcan Finnegan and written by Garret Shanley—is actually a very simple story that gets drawn out over approximately 97 minutes. The middle of the film has a very sluggish pace, but there’s enough of the story to keep people interested to find out what happens in the end.

In the beginning of “Vivarium,” there are startling images of hungry baby birds in nests, demanding to be fed by their parents. It’s a metaphor for what happens later in the story, which takes place in present-day England. Gemma Pierce (played by Imogen Poots) is a teacher at a primary school (which is called elementary school in the United States) to children who look about 5 or 6 years old. After school lets out for the day, one of the girl students finds two baby birds stomped to death near a tree in the school front lawn.

It’s here that viewers first see Gemma’s live-in American boyfriend Tom (played by Jesse Eisenberg), who climbs down from a ladder placed near the tree where the birds were found. It’s not made clear what Tom does for a living, but since this is one of the movie’s few scenes that’s set in the “outside world,” one can assume he works as a handyman at the school.

Tom and Gemma are looking for a house and they have an appointment at a real-estate company that wants to show them a new housing development in the area. When they arrive at the office, Gemma and Tom are greeted by a very creepy real-estate agent named Martin (played by Jonathan Aris), who has the kind of unblinking, crazy-eyed look that would make most people feel very uncomfortable. There’s something “off” about his mannerisms too: His smile is too fake, his way of talking seems unnatural, and at one point in the conversation, he mimics what Gemma says, almost as if he’s mocking her.

Tom senses that something isn’t quite right about Martin, and so Tom is a little reluctant to go any further in the inquiry about the house. However, Gemma (in an effort to be polite) indicates that she still wants to see the property. Against his better judgment (and since they arrived in the same car), Tom agrees to go with Gemma to get a tour of the house. They follow Martin (who drives in a separate car) to see the house where they might live.

The housing development is named Yonder, which Martin describes as “both tranquil and practical.” And it’s definitely a Stepford-type environment. All of the development’s green two-story houses and yards are identical to each other. Somehow, Tom and Gemma don’t notice that there is no one outside on the streets of this large neighborhood. It’s a major red flag of what’s to come.

Unfortunately, probably because of this film’s low budget, all of the exterior shots of the housing development looks very CGI fake. Once the characters are in the mysterious Yonder environment, it’s very obvious where the “green screen” is whenever there are scenes that are supposed to take place outside.

During a brief tour of the house, which has the number 9 as its address, Martin abruptly leaves Tom and Gemma at the house without a goodbye or any explanation. Gemma and Tom are ready to just write it off as a weird experience, so they get in their car to leave. But every time they try to find their way out of Yonder, they come right back to the house where they were. The bird’s eye view of the Yonder housing development also looks very CGI fake, like a video game.

This circling around the neighborhood goes on for quite a bit, as Tom argues with Gemma, demands to do the driving, and then he gets “lost” too. Gemma and Tom soon find out that they have no cell phone service. And as it starts to get dark, the car runs out of gas. In a major plot hole, Gemma and Tom don’t even try to see if anyone else is home who can help. Not that it would matter, since the movie’s entire plot is about them being stuck in this neighborhood with no one to help them get out.

Exhausted by their strange ordeal, they have no choice but to spend the night at the house. Tom and Gemma look in the house’s refrigerator and find it has a gift basket containing a bottle of champagne and strawberries, which Gemma and Tom consume since they have nothing else to eat and drink. Tom remarks that the strawberries have no taste.

The next day, Tom has the idea that he and Gemma should follow the direction of the sun to find their way out. They spend most of the day doing just that, climbing over neighbors’ fences and trekking through the streets. But to no avail. As it gets dark, the only house that they see with its lights on is the same No. 9 house that they were at in the beginning.

Then another strange thing happens: A box of food and other house essentials have mysteriously been delivered at the front of the house. (There’s no sign of who delivered the box.) Out of desperation, Tom (who’s a smoker) decides to use one of his cigarettes to light the house on fire, to see if anyone will notice the fire and call for help. Tom and Gemma watch nearby as the house burns to the ground, before they fall asleep.

When they wake up, Gemma and Tom are covered in ash. And the house has mysteriously appeared again, completely intact, as if the fire never happened. And then they get another box delivered to them. And what’s in the box sets in motion the rest of what happens to Tom and Gemma in the story.

The box has a baby boy in it, with a message: “Raise the child and be released.” Given that Gemma and Tom are stuck in this weird limbo environment, they basically don’t have a choice but to raise the child. (Côme Thiry plays the child as a baby.) The movie then fast forwards to 98 days later, and the baby has grown into what looks like a human boy who’s about 7 or 8 years old (played by Senan Jennings), thereby making it very clear to viewers that whoever Tom and Gemma are raising is definitely not human.

Tom is extremely resentful of the child, who has a tendency to randomly scream at the top of his lungs until he gets something. He always screams this way when he wants food, which is a nod to the bird scene that was shown in the beginning of the movie. One of the creepiest aspects of “Viviarium” is that the child (who doesn’t have a name) mimics what Tom and Gemma say in their own voices. The boy has a normal child’s voice, but more often than not, the voice that comes out when he speaks is a male or female adult voice.

Tom is quick to lose his temper and, at times, he deliberately abuses the child through physical assault and later by locking him in the car and refusing to give him food. Tom also refuses to call the child “he” and instead calls the child “it.” Gemma doesn’t like taking care of the child either, but she’s more patient than Tom is. In a scene that sums up their feelings about their forced parenting of this odd creature, Tom and Gemma both show the child their middle fingers in anger, and the child does the same.

The middle section of the film somewhat drags down the pace of the story. There are repetitive scenes of the boy doing things that irritate Tom and Gemma. Although Tom wants to try and get rid of the boy in some way, Gemma can’t bring herself to do it, no matter how much she detests taking care of the boy.

At this point in the story, Tom has a distraction to keep him out of the house for long periods of time. He’s discovered, by flicking a cigarette on the front lawn, that the cigarette has burned a mysterious circle on the grass, which exposes the dirt on the ground. Tom begins digging the dirt and hears menacing sounds underneath. Digging as far as he can into the ground then becomes Tom’s obsession and takes up a great deal of his (and this movie’s) time. In one scene, Gemma speculates that the hole that Tom is digging will lead to hell. Tom replies, “No, we’re already there.”

Meanwhile, the boy who lives with them has been fixating on watching something bizarre on the house’s TV: black-and-white color patterns that look like psychedelic cell mutations. And in the house, Gemma finds a book that has strange coding and illustrations which are clues to what is possibly going on and what kind of being that she and Tom are raising.

“Vivarium” is by no means on the level of a Christopher Nolan sci-fi movie. A Nolan film has layers and layers of deep meaning that viewers will contemplate long after the movie is over. The ending of “Vivarium” actually explains exactly why all of this is happening to Tom and Gemma. The explanation is kind of basic and actually not all that surprising.

And because so much of “Vivarium” is repetitive (Tom and Gemma’s stir-crazy angst is pretty much 90% of the movie), the movie probably would’ve been better as a short film. However, if you’re looking for a movie to pass the time and give you some suspenseful chills, “Vivarium” should do the trick. Just don’t expect anything close to a masterpiece.

Lionsgate and Saban Films released “Vivarium” on digital and VOD on March 27, 2020. The film’s Blu-ray and DVD release is on May 12, 2020.