‘Surge’ review: Dir. Aneil Karia (2021) [GFF]

After a string of acclaimed short films, Aneil Karia heads into feature-length territory with his disturbing psychodrama Surge about a security guard at his wit’s end. An unhinged descent into madness that has already found success on the festival circuit as a British successor, of sorts, to Todd Phillips’ Joker.

Joseph (Ben Whishaw) is a security officer at London’s Stansted Airport, ushering agitated passengers through various checks like emptying their pockets or filing their luggage through the metal detector. He keeps to himself mostly; even on his birthday, his co-workers eat the cake he anonymously brought in without paying it much mind. He returns home to a small apartment where his neighbour tinkers with a loud motorcycle all night long. Even Joseph’s dad (Ian Gelder) is dismissive of his son. Despite Joseph’s best efforts, he finds himself navigating his life with cynicism and loneliness until he finally decides to liberate himself when his violent, erratic tendencies boil to the surface and he completely unravels.

The way Karia has mixed the film’s soundscape, right from the off, creates a sense of unease in Joseph’s presence and then he finds mild pleasure from the derogatory experience of a strip search at his job. It becomes immediately evident that something isn’t quite right with him; as a viewer, there’s discomfort in just watching the unhappiness agitate Joseph’s every interaction – it’s all ever so slightly off. Karia directs the scenes with just enough idiosyncrasy to make us feel uncomfortable even as Joseph goes about his day-to-day in the first act of the film. It’s all building under the surface but it’s not the cathartic outburst you’d typically expect in such a film; instead, Karia never gives his character – or us, for that matter – that release. Even as Joseph revels in his newfound madness, he does so in a way that’s quietly disconcerting to watch.

This is largely due to a completely unhinged performance from Whishaw. The usually charismatic actor is unrecognisable with ticks and mannerisms that brilliantly channel Joseph’s mannered and mental process. However, on occasion, it seems as though there’s maybe something actually wrong with this man – some form of mental illness – but Surge never offers up any observations or answers and can feel a little flippant in how it portrays this character’s slow collapse into insanity. The second half of the film offers up one sequence after the other of Joseph pulling off absurd crimes without any sense of narrative or dramatic direction; some of these scenes are entertainingly crafted and watchable thanks to a committed turn from Whishaw, but it starts to beg the question of where it’s all heading and why?

Surge was reviewed at the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival.