The Surfer: Nicolas Cage and Julian McMahon make miracles in a stifling thriller (critic)

The director of Vivarium returns with a film as tense as fun, supported by the big performances of his two stars, very complementary.

We didn’t wait much to the irregular Lorcan Finnegan, celebrated for his nightmare – it’s a compliment – Vivariumand who had almost immediately showed all hope with the very weak The Nocebo Effect. But each criticism has its cute sin, and the simple presence of Nicolas Cage in the casting of his new film was enough to sharpen our interest. So here we are in May 2024 in a room at the Palais des Festivals de Cannes, in order to discover The surf“Midnight session” which will have taken a big year to disembark on Paramount+.

Cage embodies a Sunday surfing wanting to share a board with his son on the beach of his childhood, located on the Australian west coast. But a gang of premises prohibits them access to the ocean …

Fatal obsession

Between Revenge movie And psychological thriller, this outdoor camera (we will never move from the beach and its parking lot Riquiqui) owes a lot to performance dowtempo Cage: he makes miracles in type obsessed with what he is refused, and which is trampling in sight as it stripped it of its external signs of wealth (its sunglasses, its watch, its car …).

And Finnegan takes on a communicative pleasure to Sadiser the character through Scallly, leader of surfers and chief ass, played by an imperial Julian McMahon. One of the last opportunities to review the late star of NIP/TUCK And The Fantastic Fourwhich finds in this incarnation of toxic masculinity one of its best roles.

The Surfer, by Lorcan Finnegan, with Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon … 1 h 43. To see on Paramount+