Novocaine (2025) Paramount/Action-Comedy RT: 110 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence, grisly images, language throughout) Director: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen Screenplay: Lars Jacobson Music: Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski Cinematography: Jacques Jouffret Release date: March 14, 2025 (US) Cast: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Evan Hengst, Conrad Kemp.
Rating: ***
Novocaine, not to be confused with the 2001 black comedy of the same name, is surprisingly good. I didn’t expect it to be. I thought it looked stupid. The trailer, which has been showing ad nauseam for months, didn’t do anything at all for me. It turned out to be this week’s Screen Unseen feature at my local AMC theater. I was apprehensive at first, but it dissipated once the movie got going.
Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (Significant Other), Novocaine is best described as an action rom-com. That’s the same way I described last month’s Love Hurts. That one sucked. This one doesn’t. For one thing, it has a more interesting protagonist. Nathan Caine (Quaid, Companion) is a mild-mannered assistant bank manager with a rare condition that renders him unable to feel pain. He has to be super-cautious in everything he does. He has the sharp edges in his apartment protected by tennis balls. He can’t eat solid foods for fear he might bite off his tongue. He has his watch set to go off every three hours as a reminder to go to the bathroom. He lives a baby-proof life.
Nathan’s life takes an upward turn when he agrees to have lunch with Sherry (Midthunder, Prey), the beautiful bank teller he’s been crushing on for months. It’s a successful first date. She even convinces him to take a bite of her cherry pie. No, the Warrant song did NOT start playing. He meets her for her art show later and things develop from there- i.e. they sleep together.
Life couldn’t be better for Nathan, nicknamed Novocaine by his middle school classmates. He’s in love. Then fate intervenes in the form of a violent bank robbery. After forcing Nathan to give up the combination to the safe, they grab Sherry and use her as a hostage to aid in their getaway. He, in turn, throws caution to the wind and goes after them himself. He intends to rescue the woman that stole his heart. The things we do for love, right?
This is where Novocaine jumps into action mode. Nathan’s not exactly hero material, but his inability to feel pain allows him to keep going no matter what injury he sustains. Over the course of his rescue mission, he gets shot, stabbed, scalded and beaten. While fighting one of the baddies, he grabs a gun that fell into a deep fryer full of hot oil. He gets an arrow through his leg. Like the Energizer bunny, he just keeps going and going.
The robbers, led by a psycho named Simon (Nicholson, Smile 2), aren’t Nathan’s only problem. The detective on the case (Gabriel, Get Out) is after him. She and her partner (Walsh, Ted) want him to stop doing what he’s doing and turn himself in so the police can do their job. Plus, he did kill one of the bad guys so there’s that too.
Nathan’s disorder is a real thing. It’s called CIP (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain). It’s a rare condition; roughly one in a million people suffer from it. Life expectancy is about age 25. Because they can’t feel anything, they could die from a severe injury or illness. Nathan talks about his sheltered childhood and life. He’s not very social. His only friend is this guy he does on-line gaming with. He’s never met Roscoe (Batalon, the Spider-Man movies) face to face. He’s the one he calls when he needs help in his mission to save Sherry. Roscoe agrees to aid him with the understanding that he’ll put everything on Nathan when the police question him.
Be warned, Novocaine is super violent. There is blood and broken bones. Most of the injuries Nathan sustains look absolutely painful. There’s one scene where he searches an apartment that’s been rigged with Home Alone-style booby traps. This is definitely one for the squeamish to avoid.
On the upside, Berk and Olsen strike a nice balance of action and comedy. It has plenty of the former and a fair amount of the latter. I got a good laugh out of how Sherry deals with an obnoxious guy, a former classmate of Nathan’s, in a bar.
Novocaine works so much better than Love Hurts, a lame John Wick-lite affair in which the two leads (Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose) generate zero chemistry. Quaid and Midthunder spend most of the movie apart, but the scenes they have together are cute and appealing. That’s mainly because of her. She proved herself a true bad ass in the Predator prequel and now she shows she’s a capable romantic lead. Quaid is good as the unlikely hero. It’s nice to see him in a good guy role after his malevolent turns in Scream 5 and Companion. Nicholson, son of acting legend Jack, channels his dad as the main bad guy. He’s another one that’s hard to kill. Batalon provides nice comic relief as the talkative sidekick.
I enjoyed Novocaine. It’s a fun movie that demands nothing of the viewer other than a strong stomach. The action scenes are suitably thrilling. The numerous fights are well choreographed. Sure, it struggles a little with tone here and there, but the directors work through that minor glitch like champions. Still, it’s a good movie to check out even if you’re sick and tired of the trailer.
