“Novocaine” (2025)
David Hodges 3-12-25
Jack Quaid, son of the prolific and ageless actor Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, has had a long road leading up his stellar year. With the arrival of both “Companion” and now “Novocaine” he has moved away from supporting roles like he found success in with the new “Scream”’reboot and “The Boys” and finally began to take center stage. We will get to why this is important in a bit.
If you’ve seen the trailer for “Novocaine” you probably have a pretty good idea of the set up and where the movie is going to go. Bored business suburbanite Nate Cain has a secret. He can’t feel any pain. While this may sound like a novelty and it is, give the movie credit for playing out the logic of his condition. There is a reason for his routines and odd behaviors. Most importantly he is not a superhero, which means just because he doesn’t feel pain doesn’t mean he can’t take damage.
This makes him vulnerable and vulnerability is always helpful, especially in superhero movies. It’s also critical in a non superhero movie. Running at one hour and fifty minutes and a zany pleasurable one at that, this vulnerability helps smooth some of the rough edges of its challenging premise and the insane action that ensues when the woman of Nate’s dreams gets kidnapped by the men who rob the bank they both work at.
Like his father Dennis, Jack has an affable smile that is as wide as his face and when the man smiles you can tell he means it. While we get to know him, the awkwardness, the strange routines, the loneliness he faces, Jack’s charm shines through and so does the chemistry with Amber Midthunder.
Chemistry may be easy for some actors to fake but it’s just as easy for the viewer to recognize when it’s not there. Sparks crackle off the screen when Jack and Amber are together. We’ve all seen movies where the actors were phoning it in or maybe they’re trying too hard and they just don’t click. But this is Amber’s movie too and she makes the most of every scene she has to work with.
After the kidnapping, Nate begins a journey of violence that is actually more palatable than you might think. With some very inventive set pieces and a tale of “Home Alone” if Rob Zombie directed it, the movie really hits its stride in the second and third acts.
Now some people might criticize the filmmakers for not taking the violence far enough or juicing the action with some added cruelty. But that wasn’t an issue for me. It’s not like the camera turns away every time poor Jack or someone else gets a nasty injury. It doesn’t. As the movie plays out and the stakes rise so does the violence. At its core, “Novocaine” is a romantic action comedy. A guy meets a girl. Loses the girl. And the guy is going to do whatever it takes to get her back.
But it’s the Quaid smile, the Everyman we see on screen and of course Jacob Batalon as Nate’s one and only friend that help elevate “Novocaine” such a winning action comedy. Nate may get hurt … a LOT but you’re going to feel something Nate doesn’t feel, a little pain of your own when you realize the movie is over.
🔪🔪🔪1/2 out of four.