Novocaine

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Novocaine follows Nathan Caine, a reclusive assistant bank manager with a rare genetic condition that prevents him from feeling pain. When Nathan's girlfriend, Sherry, is taken hostage during a bank robbery, he goes across the city on a rampage to save her.

Novocaine is the sort of film that wants to have fun with itself, or at least the premise at work here. The moment the action and comedy are allowed to play into one another we start to get a few good scenes. This film is best when it draws a laugh from the audience, even if the laughter comes from a place of shock or surprise.

The soundtrack used here is a lot of fun. It often ramps up the novelty of action sequences or provides extra levity. The intro song, 'Everybody Hurts' by R.E.M., was a fitting choice.

Matt Walsh, who played Coltraine, isn't in this much, but every scene he is in lifts Novocaine up; Walsh is a master of comedic timing and delivering a side-splitting line.

However, the best performance came from Jack Quaid, who played Nate. It's not often we see Quaid at the centre of a feature, he usually is paired against or sits in support. Yet I will admit that while this wasn't the gripping action lead some may hope for, Quaid performs excellently within the material he has. The character of Nate is awkward and decidedly introverted from living quite a reclusive life. I enjoyed seeing how morally good and sincere Quaid made Nathan, it really bonds the audience to this unlikely action hero. Quaid's perfect at playing the awkward lead in to finding first love, the way his character falls head over heels for Midthunder's Sherry is entirely convincing. This first love is a perfect trigger point for his obsessive pursuit to 'get her back'. I also think the moments of fun are Quaid enjoying the absurdity of the 'no pain' gimmick as much as the audience. A lot of making this work really does fall on just how much Quaid gives.

Novocaine is the sort of movie that seems to be holding its breath when it starts. The movie knows what it really wants to do, which is not set up the characters or really sit in the narrative for long. This movie wants to make good on the gimmick it centres on. Putting a guy who can't feel pain through scenarios where he should be feeling extraordinary levels of pain, all while dishing it out in a comedic manner to the bad guys. The movie is unbearably simple and just frames the moments of violence in rather repetitive ways. The story is also rather predictable, you never expect Nathan to not eventually reach Sherry and the one betrayal twist is pretty clichéd. The only moment in the film where I felt genuine surprise was when a comedic side character suddenly dies, which barely has any bearing on the main story. This movie isn't really all that interested in presenting a story, which might be fine if the action was something to write home about. The action sequences feel like simple stunt work, with all the leg work being done by special effects, make-up and prosthetics. We're meant to look at the gruesome injuries and go "Oooo, what a killer scene!" But nothing much has really transpired. This sums up the tale of Novocaine really, it's a poorly thought-out premise with an entirely lacking attempt at a script.

This is an ugly film to look at most of the time, there are scenes with stale establishing shots and dull dialogue mids pepper the feature. I also felt this film was visually a poor action movie, it often relied on slow-motion shots to make the action seem more impressive than it really was. There were even entire sequences shot through a window where you had reflection glare, which seems pretty amateur for a major release film. The editing is rather slow-paced and quite static, which interferes with the urgency of the action component of the feature. The score is quite stereotypical, with an intense droning sound that rattles in the background when punches are being thrown.

Amber Midthunder, who played Sherry, is squandered in this simplistic over-the-top first-glance romance with Quaid's lead; even when Midthunder gets to pivot in an Act 2 twist it feels a bit tired and obvious. Ray Nicholson, Conrad Kemp and Evan Hengst, who played Simon, Andre and Ben respectively, just weren't much more than two-dimensional goons when they should have been the main antagonists of the film; even Nicholson comes off as too campy to make a convincing bad guy. Jacob Batalon, who played Roscoe, might be fighting against type for most of his career; the awkward best friend type to an awkward leading role gets a bit stale when you've seen it before. Betty Gabriel, who played Mincy, is too dramatically serious for this film; Gabriel tries to play this like a crime procedural and it makes her one of the dullest characters in the cast. Lou Beatty Jr., who played Earl, feels like an easy stereotypical portrayal of an elderly wise character placed to teach the young lead a lesson; there isn't much emotional weight behind Beatty Jr.'s performance despite Earl's backstory. Garth Collins, who played Zeno, staggers through his scene waiting for the action to really start; even Collins looked like he didn't believe Quaid could take him down in a fight scene.

It did not take long for this absurd action-comedy to do nothing more than just lean into its only gimmick. I would give Novocaine a 3.5/10.