'Novocaine' Review: No pain, all gain in the year's first big mainstream surprise
John Wick clones are a dime a dozen these days, but the Jack Quaid-led Novocaine has its sights set on being a fun, frantic, and sincere piece of popcorn entertainment
A frontrunner for the funniest tweet of the year so far has to go to user Le_Severine_Cox: “Every “original” movie now is either just an action comedy riff on John Wick and/or Deadpool or a thriller about how Boyfriends Are Evil and somehow they both star Jack Quaid.” While an obvious hyperbole, the sentiment is still there. Formulas for filmmaking exist, and they’re easy to point out as shortcuts to success.
As we know, Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan) led the cheeky dystopian fable Companion (2025) earlier this year, a film I reviewed last month and had mixed opinions with regard to its logic and heavy-handed messaging. Not even a month later we have another Quaid vehicle: The high-octane action-thriller Novocaine (2025), directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. While the film has some shortcomings, it marks a refreshing turning point for mainstream action filmmaking. Even if we’re just looking at the exterior of what Novocaine appears to offer, it more than delivers what it promises on the box. It’s an action-packed, consistently funny, well-shot piece of popcorn entertainment with some surprisingly gnarly set pieces. Where the film exceeds expectations is its ability to subvert the genre through its writing and structure, touting thoughtfully written characters with well-defined motivations, making it the first big surprise of the year.
Meet Nathan Caine (Quaid): He’s a mild-mannered introvert with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA). He’s an assistant manager at a San Diego trust credit union who keeps to himself as his disability makes him vulnerable to potential illness and infection. It isn’t until he gets up the nerve to ask out Sherry (the kind-hearted Amber Midthunder), a bank teller at his credit union, that he feels the urge to step outside his comfort zone. It all starts with a piece of cherry pie at a nearby diner (typically off limits due to the possibility of Nathan biting off his tongue), and thanks to Sherry’s persistence, he’s ready to face the world with a confidence he never thought possible. Just as he’s about to ask Sherry out on a second date, a team of three robbers in Santa Claus suits hold up the bank, escaping with thousands of dollars and Sherry in-tow as a hostage. Hot on their trail, it’s up to Nathan to use his newfound confidence (and inability to feel pain) to rescue Sherry.
As you would probably expect, the secret to a project like Novocaine is its lead and Jack Quaid absolutely nails the personification required to carry this movie. While Nathan Caine isn’t necessarily the deepest character, his arcs are written with a lovingly familiar charm to them. I dare you not to fall in love with Nathan Caine after he takes that first bite of cherry pie. It’s not just that Nathan is trying a new food for the first time–he’s experiencing his first taste of forbidden fruit. For years, he’s been told he should fear every solid food because he could bite off his tongue or choke and die. It’s been hammered home by his parents and a litany of doctors for years that this is how he should live his life, and in one simple bite, everything he thought he knew has changed.
Thanks to Sherry, his life is forever changed, and through a few simple scenes of electric chemistry, we know everything we need to about these characters and their motivations. Sherry is the first person to look past Nathan’s disability and give him a reason to live for himself, so it makes perfect sense why Nathan feels so indebted to her when she’s kidnapped. If Sherry dies, he loses all purpose, and it’s this kind of forethought that is so often sorely lacking from mainstream action films. The same can be said for another great through-line where Nathan shows he’s tattooed an entire medieval story onto his body, but doesn’t know how to end it. Again, it’s easy to tell where he’ll find the ending, but as a setup and payoff, it works wonders and gives the film a personality that shines so much brighter than the competition.
That’s not to say that Novocaine is perfect, because it has some sore spots, like a lot of its counterparts. The humor, while solid a majority of the time, does have some lulls that break up the momentum. That, and the main villain, while charismatically performed by Ray Nicholson (son of Jack Nicholson), monologues a little too much in the climax. It’s a shame that Novocaine’s problems are so minor and fixable because the rest of the film flirts with perfection so often. Regardless though, why let perfect be the enemy of good? And Novocaine isn’t just good. It’s damn good.
B+
Feature image credit to Paramount via CBR
