A person who can’t feel pain getting into knife fights and shootouts is an inherently funny concept. “Novocaine” milks the premise for all it’s worth, making for a breezy and entertaining time at the theater.
The film’s success lies primarily in the lead performance of Jack Quaid, who plays Nathan Caine, a man completely numb to pain. His ability to convey emotions and laughs simply through facial expressions and movement is wildly impressive, and it enhances every scene he’s in.
The story follows Caine as he attempts to track down a group of robbers that attacked his bank and took the girl of his dreams hostage.
Not only does Quaid elevate the movie as a whole, but he also prevents the no pain premise from getting old. The gag certainly loses its original novelty at a certain point, but Quaid’s performance keeps it from falling into redundancy.
Another factor in the continued freshness is its increasing goriness. Every injury that Caine sustains leads to an even more visceral wince from the viewer, as the bone cracking and blood squirting somehow finds creative ways to stay original.
In fact, the final kill is one of the most uniquely and twisted innovative ones put to film in a long time. It completely embodies the nature of the movie as a whole, being both grimace-inducing and hilariously over-the-top at the same time.
Despite how fun and thrilling “Novocaine” is, there are a number of problems that keep it from being truly great.
Every time that the film cuts away to a side plot that Quaid’s character is not a part of, it almost feels like snipping a hole in a balloon and watching the air slowly release. It can’t be overstated how important Quaid is to the momentum and cohesion of the film, and it’s glaringly apparent in these scenes.
Almost every side character is entirely one-dimensional and fails to go beyond one defining character trait. Whether it’s the stone-cold villain who’s obsessed with money or the sarcastic cop who sips on the same cup of coffee for the entire film, almost everyone aside from Quaid is bland.
If there is one side character with a bit or personality, it’s Caine’s gaming friend Roscoe, played by Jacob Batalon. He steals every scene he’s in and delivers some of the funniest lines of the movie.
Another problem is that while the ending doesn’t feel outright repetitive, it does feel very messy. The story winds up falling into the trope of the borderline-immortal villain, one who can take gunshots and stab wounds but still get back up with little to no impact. It makes the ending feel relatively cheap and frankly lackluster compared to how clever the rest of the film is.
As a whole, “Novocaine” takes advantage of its original concept, finding ways to capitalize on it for the entire runtime without feeling redundant. While it does struggle to put together a competent supporting cast of characters, Quaid’s charisma and charm is more than enough to make for an absolute blast at the theater.
