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In the last six years, Jack Quaid has done a lot to establish himself as a wonderful talent – and one with impressive range. Between work on television including The Boys and Star Trek: Lower Decks and movies like Plus One, Scream, and Companion, he has shown that he play everything from delightful goofball to slasher psychopath, and he’s done it all while showcasing significant charisma and screen presence. He is a star whose work I now actively anticipate seeing, making his debut as the lead in an action film something to which I’ve been looking forward for months now.
Novocaine
Release Date: March 14, 2025
Directed By: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Written By: Lars Jacobson
Starring: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, and Jacob Batalon
Rating: R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, and language throughout
Runtime: 110 minutes
With Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s Novocaine, my anticipation was satiated in the sense that Jack Quaid delivers another amusing performance full of quirk, humor, and affability – but it also ends up being a movie that hangs too heavily on its own hook: a protagonist who can’t feel pain. There is plenty of fun and a handful of clever moments, but much of it feels undercooked beyond its core idea, as building a strong narrative clearly took a backseat to inventing fun ways to take advantage of the hero’s rare medical condition.
Quaid stars in the film as Nathan Caine – a mild-mannered young man working as an assistant manager at a San Diego bank who lives a very sheltered existence as a result of living his life with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA). After months of pining for Sherry (Amber Midthunder), he is finally able to come out of his shell when she invites him to attend an art gallery, and his entire worldview and attitude takes a shift toward the wonderful after they have a great night together.
Unfortunately, this emotional high is destroyed the very next day when a trio of thieves in Santa outfits (Ray Nicholson, Conrad Kemp, Evan Hengst) execute a heist and take Sherry as a hostage during their violent getaway. In love for the first time ever and fearing that the detectives on the case (Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh) won’t be able to act quickly enough, Nathan decides to handle the crisis on his own and puts himself in harm’s way so that he can rescue his new girlfriend.
Novocaine is a bit empty beyond its one big idea.
Written by Lars Jacobson, the script for Novocaine has a lot more going for it than what movie-goers saw last month in Love Hurts – featuring a parallel premise about a seemingly ordinary guy discovering his inner badass – but what makes the film unique within the action subgenre also results in it being both overcooked and undercooked (like a microwaved snack that is scorching on the outside but frozen in the middle). It feels like the script was concocted starting with a list of everything that Nathan could endure, and those ideas were then plugged into what is otherwise a rote adventure.
Without saying too much and risking ruining the movie for anyone, there was a point about half-way through the film when I realized that a key aspect of the story didn’t make any sense, and while a narrative turn was then revealed a solution to the issue, it’s a narrative turn that has been executed countless times before. It’s the most egregious example but also part of Novocaine’s most consistent problem, and which there is that there is no true effort for innovation. It tries to sail on its best creative idea, but it’s like bound-together driftwood: it floats, but it doesn’t support much/any weight.
While the action is fun, it doesn’t take full advantage of the film’s hook stylistically.
Similar sentiments can be shared about the action – though it is also the best thing that the movie has going for it. Because he doesn’t feel pain, Nathan can do things that the majority of us cannot, and it’s nasty fun to see him make use of a scalding cast iron pan in a kitchen battle or load up his fists with shards of broken glass during a melee in a tattoo parlor. It balances out the fact that the protagonist’s lack of training means that the fights aren’t exactly packed with finesse and skill… but I will also say that the film doesn’t push as hard as it could.
While Nathan can’t feel pain, the audience naturally imagines how we would feel in matching circumstances, and Novocaine doesn’t do enough to take advantage of that fact. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen do indulge a bit (the standout example being a sequence with intense close-ups of Nathan’s fingernails being pulled out), but it’s a tool that spends too much time in the toolbox. The directors’ go-to move instead are bits of dramatic slow motion, which are used to fun effect but never with any unique flair.
Novocaine is a spotlight moment for Jack Quaid, and it’s a success in that respect.
The principal reason to check out Novocaine is really the turn by Jack Quaid and his continuing success as an entertaining leading man. Audiences spend a grand total of two whole days with Nathan in the movie, and we see his life go from 0 to 60 (from being afraid to eat solid foods to stealing a cop car to pursue a cadre of armed criminals), but Quaid has the charm to carry that transformation. He brings a magnetism that invests you in the character and has you rooting for positive change, and he’s also an adept comedic performer, as he gets laughs from being an innocent in dangerous waters and with physical bits. There are echoes of Huey from The Boys, but Nathan has his own energy.
Novocaine is not a bad movie, but it also suffers from not being able to go the extra mile and get the most out of its high concept premise. Moderated expectations going in are recommended and will help you get more out of the cinematic experience, but I already know it’s not a film that I’m going to be thinking a lot about come December when I look back at 2025 on the big screen.
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