Ben Whishaw shakes off the shackles of Paddington Bear in Surge, an intense if meandering thriller about a man driven to the brink.
(This review is part of our coverage of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.)
“I am so. Fucking. TIRED!” shouts Joseph (Ben Whishaw), a twitchy airport security worker at the end of a long, aggravating day to a neighbor who won’t stop revving his four-wheeler outside their apartment building. We don’t know what kind of mental health history Joseph has, and Aneil Karia‘s propulsive thriller Surge gives us little to work on in that department. We’re left to intuit whether he’s had something off in his head for a while, or if this is that old Joker idiom about it only taking one bad day to turn a regular person into a maniac. But as the stresses mount, and Joseph responds accordingly to his frayed-wire madness, Surge becomes less interested in the whys than the hows of a man realizing the precarious nature of our social fabric, pulling gleefully at the threads to see if it unravels.
Effectively a feature-length take on Karia’s previous short Beat (which also starred Whishaw as a man on the brink), Surge is an exercise in taking our deepest, darkest impulses to their furthest conclusion. To watch Whishaw’s Joseph in the latter half of this film is to watch an extended version of one of those scenes in a movie where a frustrated character trashes a room and flings things to the floor; there’s a transgressive joy in it, and a deep sadness too.
From what we see of his life, Joseph’s world is not a happy one: his airport work –with its sweaty patdowns and nervous banter — immediately places him in an antagonistic, intimate dynamic with the people he meets. His parents (Ian Gelder and Ellie Haddington) are, respectively, deeply withholding and frustratingly overbearing. You get the sense that Joseph is constantly pinballing between situations, perpetually terrified that he’ll do something wrong or, worse, impolite — it’s enough to drive anyone mad. His home life, or lack of one, gives him few outlets for positivity, with no romantic partner to speak of (save for a coworker (Jasmine Jobson) he unhealthily pines for). And he has a disquieting tic where he gnaws on dinner forks and drinking glasses, the latter eventually breaking in his mouth in one disturbing scene. Society, it seems, is gnawing on him right back.
It’s not too long before all these stressors make Joseph finally snap, resulting in an hour-long English riff on Falling Down (or, as I like to call it, A Jolly Tumble). What starts as a breakdown at work turns into a last-ditch effort to ingratiate himself to his coworker by fixing her TV, which leads to a Safdie Brothers-caliber descent into neurotic madness. There are more than a few parallels to the Safdies’ 2017 thriller Good Time (right down to a bluffed bank robbery that results in an ink pack going off), but the focus is more on social breakdown than the tragic follies of a flawed protagonist. At this point, Joseph welcomes trouble, but he’s always able to escape it, to an almost increasingly implausible degree as the film continues.
Still, if you surrender yourself to the idea that society has degraded so much that someone like Joseph can get away with so much gleeful mayhem, there is a wry humor that sets in in the latter half of Surge‘s journey that helps amplify the single-mindedness of it all. Most of the major action takes place over a single night, Stuart Bentley’s handheld cinematography getting plenty of long-take workouts as Joseph’s mania compounds. But try as they might to build Joseph’s marathon of madness to a larger point about man’s inhumanity to man, or white male rage, it all ends up feeling a bit thin. He just ends up seeming like an asshole, and takes it out on a lot of people who don’t deserve it.
As for Whishaw, he’s clearly relishing the chance to let loose in a way his prim and proper British lads of old (Paddington, Q) don’t allow; whether you’re on board with his fidgety impulses and awkward Joker smiles is in the eye of the beholder. They feel novel and transgressive, then they start to get old, then they keep going long enough for them to feel like a kind of sad genius. Whatever your mileage for such an actor-y showcase performance, Surge will certainly test it.
Read next: The Spool's Best New Releases
Streaming guides
The Best Live TV Streaming Services With Free Trial
The praises of live TV streaming services don’t need to be further sung. By now, we all know that compared to clunky, commitment-heavy cable, live TV is cheaper and much easier to manage. But just in case you’re still on the fence about jumping over to the other side, or if you’re just unhappy with ... The Best Live TV Streaming Services With Free Trial
How to Watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3
Season 3 of the hotly anticipated Power spin-off, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, is arriving on Starz soon, so you know what that means: it’s the ’90s again in The Southside, and we’re back with the Thomas family as they navigate the ins and outs of the criminal underworld they’re helping build. Mekai Curtis is ... How to Watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3
How to Watch Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re so back! To celebrate Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary, the BBC is producing a three-episode special starring none other than the Tenth/Fourteenth Doctor himself, David Tennant. And to the supreme delight of fans (that would be me, dear reader), the Doctor will be joined by old-time companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and ... How to Watch Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials
Which Netflix Country Has Each Movie of The Hunger Games?
For whatever reason, The Hunger Games series isn’t available in the same countries around the world. You’ll find the first and second (aka the best) installments in Hong Kong, for instance, but not the third and fourth. It’s a frustrating dilemma, especially if you don’t even have a single entry in your region, which is ... Which Netflix Country Has Each Movie of The Hunger Games?
How to watch Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin Season 2
After a years-long hiatus, scientist and explorer Albert Lin is coming back to National Geographic with a fresh new season of Lost Cities, renamed “Lost Cities Revealed.” In the past, Lin, who is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a real-life Indiana Jones, has traveled everywhere from the ancient Knights Templar in Israel to ... How to watch Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin Season 2
How to Watch Paramount Network With a Free Trial
To date, Paramount Network has only two original shows on air right now: Yellowstone and Bar Rescue. The network seems to have its hands full with on-demand streaming service Paramount+, which is constantly stacked with a fresh supply of new shows. But Yellowstone and Bar Rescue are so sturdy and expansive that the network doesn’t ... How to Watch Paramount Network With a Free Trial
How to Watch WE TV With a Free Trial
Previously “Women’s Entertainment,” We TV has since rebranded to accurately reflect its name and be a more inclusive lifestyle channel. It’s home to addictive reality gems like Bold and Bougie, Bridezillas, Marriage Boot Camp, and The Untold Stories of Hip Hop. And when it’s not airing original titles, it has on syndicated shows like 9-1-1, ... How to Watch WE TV With a Free Trial
How to Watch FX With a Free Trial
You’d be hard-pressed to find a bad show airing on FX. The channel has made a name for itself as a bastion of high-brow TV, along with HBO and AMC. It’s produced shows like Atlanta, Fargo, The Americans, Archer, and more recently, Shogun. But because it’s owned by Disney, it still airs several blockbusters in ... How to Watch FX With a Free Trial
How to Watch A&E With A Free Trial
If you’re a fan of true crime and insider docu-shows like The First 48 and Court Cam, then you’re probably already familiar with A&E. The cable channel is home to other reality TV gems like Hoarders, Duck Dynasty, and Storage Wars (they’ve moved on to spin-offs like Road Wars, Customer Wars, and Prison Wars now). ... How to Watch A&E With A Free Trial
How to Watch Unimás With a Free Trial
As the sister channel of the much bigger Univision, Unimás is home to popular Spanish-language telenovelas and talk shows (yes, including El Gordo y La Flaca), as well as a couple of sports events and programs. Most notably, however, Unimás also operates a couple of station affiliates around the country, so it also reports local ... How to Watch Unimás With a Free Trial
How to Watch TNT With A Free Trial
For many sports fans, TNT is a non-negotiable. It broadcasts NBA, MLB, NHL, college basketball, and All Elite Wrestling matches. And, as a bonus, it also has reruns of shows like Supernatural, Charmed, and NCIS, as well as films like The Avengers, Dune, and Justice League. But while TNT used to be a cable staple, ... How to Watch TNT With A Free Trial