Novocaine – REVIEW

Jack Quaid in Novocaine


I’m fully aware that this is probably going to be a shorter post, but I’ve been busy as hell recently and I just gotta get this thing out there. Honestly, though, Novocaine might be the perfect movie to just get a quick post out there and in the open. This is the newest movie in a now-typical sort-of conceptual action movie that’s been going on for the past few years, and I really think John Wick really opened the floodgates with this archetype: someone who’s mild-mannered, whether it’s really who they are or they’re hiding a part of themself, has to get out there and save someone/enact revenge for something that was done to them. If anything, this could also be attributed to David Leitch, one of the co-directors of the first John Wick and the founder of 87North, a studio that specializes in bloody, brutal movies that are reminiscent of the John Wick franchise: Nobody with Bob Odenkirk, Bullet Train, Violent Night, and The Fall Guy are probably the main examples. This movie doesn’t involve Leitch or 87North, which actually surprised me. It falls right into that camp perfectly. Jack Quaid plays Nathan Caine, a man with congenital analgesia, an extremely rare neurological disorder where he cannot feel pain, who has to save his co-worker after she’s taken hostage by bank robbers. At first, I thought that I wasn’t familiar with the directors here, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, but they actually made a movie called Villains, with Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe, a few years back that I watched just a few months ago. It ended up being a lot of fun, and Novocaine really fits that bill. Quaid, who recently had a great part in the techno-horror gem Companion, is off to a great start in 2025 as Nathan, who makes the turn from your typical man to a badass action hero a lot of fun. Honestly, he does a lot of the heavy lifting since he gets most of the action. Amber Midthunder, who I really enjoyed in Prey and her breakout role in the FX series Legion, probably gets the second most as Sherry, Nathan’s co-worker and eventual girlfriend. If anything, both Jacob Batalon and Ray Nicholson, as Nathan’s online friend and the leader of the bank robbers that kidnap Sherry respectively, barely get anything to work with. It’s fun enough, but what I’ll also add is that in these posts, I like to link the trailer. I’m still going to, but if you haven’t seen the trailer for Novocaine, don’t watch it. Unfortunately, most of the best parts of the movie are in the trailer, so that just sucks, really. Mostly, though, Novocaine is a fun time. Maybe it won’t be something you remember as the year goes on, but I wouldn’t call it a waste of time by any means.


Ryan’s Grade: B