Nic Cage loses it (again) down under; an Icelandic composer’s elegy for lost love; reunited brothers bond over brass; more…

THE SURFERThe long and winding Nicolas Cage filmography has taken many strange turns since he made his screen debut back in 1982, flipping burgers inFast Times At Ridgemont High. He’s been lupine romantic lead (Moonstruck, Peggy Sue Got Married) and gonzo action hero (The Rock, Face/Off). He’s been prestige Oscar bait (Birdy, Leaving Las Vegas) and unhinged indie darling (Raising Arizona, Wild At Heart, Adaptation). He’s trudged through career purgatory and come out the other side to enjoy an improbable renaissance with international arthouse horror hits likeMandy, Dream ScenarioandLonglegs. NowThe Surfersuggests that he could spend his sixties becoming the 21st-century Jimmy Stewart.

On the face of it this is one more B-movie opportunity for Nic to chomp his way through rats, rotten burgers, birds’ eggs and much of the scenery of the stunning beach at Yallingup, Western Australia. He plays a well-to-do middle-aged dad with a Prius and teenage son, who after a life in business, has returned to Luna Bay to buy back his childhood home on Clifftop Drive.

He soon discovers the old town has been taken over by bronzed blond yahoos who don’t take kindly to outsiders. “Don’t live here? Don’t surf here,” he’s told when he tries to take his son down to enjoy the waves. What might initially seem to be overzealous protectionism – locals keen to protect the charm of their little patch of paradise from tourist exploitation – takes a more sinister turn when it turns out that the leader, Scally, is leading a kind of Fight Club-style macho cult and has the local cops in his pocket.

Desperate to get back to his mythical beach, Nic goes through trials of degradation familiar to anyone who saw his turn in Pig. Camped out in the carpark above the beach, observing the shamanist surf rituals through binoculars, he loses first his wallet, then his phone, his car, his wedding ring and eventually his mind, until he’s indistinguishable from the bedraggled old beach bum eternally searching for his beloved lost dog.