“Novocaine No Pain” Movie Review – Spotlight Report
Novocaine No Pain (or just Novocaine depending on where you watch it) is an action comedy that you’ll want to see with a large audience.
Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) suffers from a condition which prevents him from experiencing any pain. While this sounds like a blessing, it means he is at constant risk of seriously injuring himself without realising and dying from a failure to treat the wound. He lives out his days very carefully, avoiding even solid food to avoid biting his tongue off, until he meets Sherry (Amber Midthunder) a teller at his bank. When she’s taken hostage during a stick-up, he risks everything to save her, using his immunity to pain to get an edge on the criminals.
The non-stop-action, one-man-army movie has become something of a fixture recently, with films like John Wick, Nobody, anything with Jason Statham or Liam Neeson in it and so on basically becoming the main way for cinemas to dish out violence. Part of this is the simplification of moral questions about why the violence is being committed (it’s personal and/or a rescue) and part of it is also because it’s satisfying to follow the protagonist through every challenge, almost as though you’re cheering on a video game character. The question it always raises, though, is how does the character possibly take that much punishment and keep going. Usually we get a backstory that implies he’s simply a very tough guy, but in Novocaine, our hero is someone who simply doesn’t feel anything. It’s a neat twist that changes the dynamic from action to comedy and a series of violent puzzle-solving gags that will lodge themselves in your memory forever.
Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen keep you guessing how the bumbling Nate is going to get through some grisly, horrible situation, and invariably it is wince-inducing. Plenty of further credit also has to go to writer Lars Jacobson, who uses some impressive economy in character-building that keeps you invested in the story. Where the film really shines, though, is in the incredibly precise performance of Jack Quaid. He plays his hero as a bewildered everyman, occasionally revelling in his “power” as frustrated enemies struggle to inflict suffering on him. Adding to the fun is a really likeable performance by Jacob Batalon as Nate’s friend Roscoe, who reluctantly helps him in his quest to save Sherry. Batalon isn’t doing anything new as a performer, but he’s good enough at what he’s doing to steal a few scenes.
It’s impossible to recommend a film as determinedly, creatively, gorily violent as Novocaine to all audiences. Some of it is so excruciating to watch that it was very hard to tell if more of the audience was screaming or laughing. That said, if you have a dark sense of humour and you enjoy inventive action scenes, you really shouldn’t miss it. If you think you can take it, be sure to see Novocaine in a cinema.
