by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, a bank manager with an interesting “superpower” leaps into action to save her in Novocaine.
Nathan Caine is just a mild-mannered, keep-to-himself kind of guy with CIPA, a rare condition that does not allow him to feel physical pain. He works as the assistant manager at a bank where he meets Sherry, a young bank teller. After some convincing by his gaming friend Roscoe, Nathan asks Sherry out. They hit it off. The next morning, the bank is robbed by a violent team all dressed as Santa Claus. Nathan’s boss is killed, and Sherry gets kidnapped by the robbers. Fearing the worst and desperately in love, Nathan steals a police car to chase after the robbers and save Sherry. But what can one man do against a group of bank robbers in two separate cars?
Novocaine is written by Lars Jacobson (Day of the Dead: Bloodline, executive producer of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist). It stars Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, and Jacob Batalon. Novocaine is directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olson. The team of Berk and Olson are responsible for making the sci-fi thriller Significant Other (2022) and the dark comedy Villains (2019). Berk and Olson combine those experiences in making this dark action thriller.
People living with CIPA are rare and don’t usually live long. The problem is that they end up doing something to themselves without knowing, like a cut or puncture, and they bleed out or develop an infection and get sick and die. They can’t feel pain, but they can hurt themselves. They are forced to live in a constant state of watchfulness. This is the world of Nathan Caine, who goes so far as to only eat soft foods so he won’t bite off his tongue accidentally. It makes perfect sense that Nathan would be so attracted to the woman who got him to taste apple pie for the first time (among other things).
This film is a showcase for the talents of Jack Quaid. Playing Nathan, Quaid is a myriad of characters. He is the lonely gamer living in a bubble of his own making, frightened of the world and all the things in it. He is then the shy, inexperienced man trying to score with a girl who seems out of his league. Finally, the hapless hero is thrust into the type of action that he has only played in games. Quaid is fantastic and charming. Berk and Olson fell in love with the energy that Quaid projected from his work on The Boys and fashioned the character of Nathan Caine with Quaid in mind.
The story is smart, funny, and multi-faceted, keeping the viewers on the edge of their seats and then pulling the chair out from under them. Some of it is expected. A lot of it is not.
Rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, and language throughout, Novocaine is an action comedy that delights throughout as we wonder just how much one guy can take. Even if he can’t feel pain, the audience feels it for him. Great fun. By the way, don’t try this at home.
Novocaine can be seen in theaters starting March 14, 2025.
Grade: B
