The Surfer
Lionsgate | Release Date: May 2, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 9, 2025
It’s a lurid psychological horror that’ll thrill midnight movie crowds. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyMay 8, 2025
The Surfer is what you might call a slow-burn Cage. There’s the manic, hollering prize at the end (and even a line of dialogue worthy of a future meme), but also plenty of the actor’s more undervalued speciality – the expression of gargantuan helplessness, the look of a fish who’s been thrown to land and left to die Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiMay 2, 2025
The Surfer is a slow-burn film that requires a lot of patience. Cage does his best with limited material, as his character doesn’t have much depth beyond wanting something and aiming to get it. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyMay 1, 2025
If this movie leaves Cage adrift, he doesn’t seem at all uncomfortable about it. Read full review
60
ColliderEmma KielyOct 9, 2024
What ultimately weighs it down is the lack of a core narrative to ground the chaos and madness around it. Still, come for the views, the insanity, and Cage giving away a priceless watch for a flat white. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 19, 2024
The film is trying for something, but it’s also sketchy in the extreme. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 19, 2024
Finnegan continues to demonstrate a passion for upending the banality of the everyday, but The Surfer gets as lost as its protagonist, unable to ride the wave of its own mad design. Read full review
58
Paste MagazineChloe WalkerMar 5, 2025
Cage has never been less than immensely watchable in any movie, good or bad. In those like The Surfer, which falls somewhere in the middle, he continues to prove an unparalleled ability to transcend mediocrity, and turn any performance into a one-man firework show. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiMay 2, 2025
Ultimately, “The Surfer” proves to be not much more than an audience endurance test that offers up plenty of upsetting imagery and moments of emotional torment but never quite manages to make them pay off. Read full review
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