It’s not simple to get a giant chortle earlier than a movie‘s opening credit even full their roll, however Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s “Novocaine” manages to tug that trick off with out a hitch. Sure, these first laughs — constructed on the impressed option to open a movie a few man who can’t really feel any ache with R.E.M.’s “Everyone Hurts” — depend on an viewers realizing the motion outing’s largest and greatest thought earlier than they’ve even taken the primary sip of their multiplex soda, however there’s way more happening. Effectively, at first.
Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid, charming) can’t really feel any ache, a kicky sufficient thought for each a movie and a tagline (and, as we quickly see, a reasonably intelligent and likewise extremely imply nickname), and it’s understandably made his life as downbeat as, effectively, one among R.E.M.’s largest hits. Once we meet Nathan, we’re handled not simply to the dulcet tones of Michael Stipe, however to a fast tour of the assorted guardrails our hero has arrange to make sure his lack of ability to really feel ache doesn’t result in his unintentional demise. There are tennis balls affixed to any and all sharp corners, ice cubes positioned in his espresso cup earlier than he even pours a drop, and an ever-ready field of Band-Aids.
Nathan has gotten this far in life — learn: quiet house, good job as an assistant financial institution supervisor, extremely bleak social life — by enjoying it past protected. And who can blame him? Screenwriter Lars Jacobson’s script is oriented round a really actual dysfunction: CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Ache with Anhidrosis), one which requires those that undergo from it to guide ordered, cautious lives to be able to, effectively, lead any form of life in any respect.
However Nate goals of extra. Principally, he goals of cute financial institution teller Sherry (a captivating Amber Midthunder, making an unimaginable case for her personal rom-com proper now), who blew into his quiet office a couple of months in the past and unknowingly upended every little thing. Nathan may not be capable of really feel bodily ache, however he’s acquired a really tender coronary heart, and when sad-eyed shopper Earl (Lou Beatty Jr.) bemoans the latest lack of his spouse over the very doable lack of his enterprise, Nate can’t determine what hurts extra, the heartbroken man earlier than him or the likelihood he’ll by no means really feel that form of loss for himself.
Watch out what you would like for, Nate! Impressed by Earl’s love story and sick of perpetually sitting issues out, Nate agrees to go to lunch with Sherry after she sneaks up on him and inadvertently causes him to pour scorching espresso throughout his hand. She’s very sorry, and she or he’s very candy, and the way can she probably make it as much as him? Over the course of simply two dates (in the identical day! good job, Nate!), the duo bond in sudden methods, opening themselves as much as the likelihood that hiding our weaknesses is the shortest strategy to a life unlived. Oh, and it doesn’t harm that the seemingly nerdy Nate is positively coated in horny tattoos he’s accomplished himself.
That is all a really lengthy strategy to say that the primary act of Berk and Olsen’s movie is good, humorous, and sensible in methods that can really feel like a distant reminiscence by the point “Novocaine” lands its closing blow. Nathan Caine may not really feel any ache, however oooof, will his viewers, because the movie’s eventual hyper-violence slides so swiftly from amusing to horrifying, then one way or the other discovering title-appropriate numbness in addition. By the movie’s closing act, you’ll see stuff you’ve by no means seen earlier than, and possibly by no means needed to (no, you possibly can’t think about the place a fractured bone will find yourself, my goodness).
The day after Nate and Sherry’s double decker dates, their quiet office is besieged by a trio of asshole robbers dressed like Santa (sure, “Novocaine” is a Christmas film), who do some critical injury to the financial institution, the skeleton crew of cops who present as much as bust them, and Nate’s psychological state after they (nooooo) take Sherry hostage. Simply final evening, Sherry was telling him his situation makes Nate one thing of a superhero, and there’s by no means been a greater probability to show it than proper now. Quickly, mild-mannered Nate is off after the baddies, intent on getting again the one one that has ever seen his limitations as presents.
This idea is a nice one: what if an on a regular basis geek was genetically wired to go completely ham to win again the dreamy lady who has stolen his coronary heart? Initially, Nate is simply as stunned as we’re, however Jacobson’s script and Berk and Olsen’s route quickly provide a batshit U-turn that dilutes this concept in myriad disappointing methods. Certain, we’d be capable of chalk up Nate’s uncanny capacity to battle unhealthy dudes as a result of he actually can’t really feel the injury they’re inflicting on him, however why does each single man he fights additionally must be a roided-up freak with little interest in self-preservation?
Nate isn’t simply combating different on a regular basis dudes with felony intent, he’s caught going up in opposition to three insane financial institution robbers (together with Ray Nicholson, who has some critical enjoyable with a comparatively small position) and the meanest Nazi sympathizing tattoo artist you’ve ever seen. He responds in type, although not in character, and whereas Quaid is uniquely expert at enjoying each side of Nate (mild-mannered everyman, wacked out motion star), it’s exhausting to marry them into one cohesive character.
Sure, it’s enjoyable to observe within the context of “this can be a loopy motion movie,” and that bent additionally helps among the movie’s different, untethered features go down simple (like a giant twist involving Sherry that’s each stunning and completely pointless or Betty Gabriel as a cop with the world’s worst decision-making expertise), however for a movie that begins with such natty promise, it does sting. So too does the precise motion, which strikes from cartoonishly enjoyable to grim and queasy with nary a step in between. We don’t need to see Nate really tortured, and the impression hurts each emotionally and bodily. What a gutpunch, huh?
Nonetheless, the movie makes a terrific case for Quaid as motion hero, Midthunder as romantic charmer, and Berk and Olsen as being able to step out of their horror-centric background. Subsequent time, make it finish on a buzzier break, huh? “Novocaine” doesn’t must make anybody this numb, not after begin with an actual (sorry) shot to the arm.
Grade: C+
“Novocaine” premiered on the 2025 SXSW Movie Competition. Paramount Photos will launch it in theaters on Friday, March 14.
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