Novocaine (2025)
Jack Quaid is having a good 2025. He
skillfully played his self-effacing nice guy persona to sinister effect in
January's excellent Companion, but in the new action film Novocaine,
he plays a nice guy who—really is a nice guy.
Quaid plays Nathan Caine, an assistant
bank manager in San Diego with a condition that prevents him from feeling pain.
He's self-conscious, keeps largely to himself, and stays home when he's not at
work. As he points out, his condition makes it likely that he could seriously
injure himself without realizing he's hurt. So, he lives life with a
better-safe-than-sorry attitude.
However, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a
new employee at his bank, takes a liking to him and gets him to come out of his
shell a bit. Just as he falls hopelessly in love with her, robbers storm his
bank and flee with Sherry as a hostage. He takes off after them and soon his
inability to feel pain comes in handy.
For viewers willing to suspend a
substantial amount of disbelief (yes Nathan can't feel pain, but he sustains
several injuries that should still kill him), there's fun to be had in Novocaine.
Critically, Quaid and Midthunder make viewers care in the first act. If you're
not rooting for them when the bank robbery happens, this doesn't work. There
are also a lot of funny lines and some creative fight scenes.
On the down side, Novocaine goes
on about 10 minutes longer than it should, and its R-rating due to extreme gore
might limit its audience. It's a film ideally suited for teen boys (14-year-old
me would have loved it) but the rating might prevent some from seeing it.
Granted, teen boys being teen boys, they might still find a way to see it (this
writer certainly did so with many R-rated films in his early to mid-teen
years).
