NOVOCAINE (2025) review

written by: Lars Jacobson
produced by: Adam Friedlander, Joby Harold, Julian Rosenberg, Drew Simon, Tory Tunnell
directed by: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
rated: R (for strong bloody violence, grisly images, and language throughout)
runtime: 110 min.
U.S. release date: March 14, 2025

“Oh, you should probably launder that.”

We’re not even a quarter of the way through 2025, and there have now been two Jack Quaid leading man movies released this year. While they’re not wildly different roles, his characters in January’s “Companion” and this month’s “Novocaine” do kind of show the complete picture of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid’s offspring.

While not perhaps as effortlessly charming as his mom, Jack Quaid has proven himself a substantially better actor than his self-serious father. His two leading roles this year alone have shown him to have a much wider range, and as sick as one can get of the whole nepo-baby thing, it is a proud (though not uniquely) Hollywood tradition. Jack Quaid is, certifiably, the real deal. Were all children of famous parents this talented.

That brings us to “Novocaine,” where Quaid plays Nathan Caine, a mild-mannered middle manager at a bank with a series of quirks that make him something of a curio to his fellow employees. It also becomes abundantly clear that he’s got it bad for one of the tellers, Sherry (Amber Midthunder, “Prey”), who seems to be able to bring Nathan out of his shell a bit. When he finally confesses to her that he has a congenital disease that makes it so he can’t feel pain, the clearly damaged Sherry also comes out of her shell.

Unfortunately for them both, the next day brings a bank robbery where a violent sociopath named Simon (Ray Nicholson, son of Jack Nicholson) and his two accomplices rob the bank, murder the bank manager, and take off with Sherry as a hostage. While Nathan has never stepped one foot outside his circle of comfort, he feels compelled to put his condition to good use and go save his dream girl. He even utilizes Spider-Man’s Jacob Batalon in the exact same capacity, as Nathan’s “guy in the chair.”

Naturally disability rights activists will line up to condemn this film for daring to poke fun at an actual condition that adversely affects people, but this film isn’t out to offend anyone’s sensibilities. Were this a documentary about the exact same subject, they might have a point, but let’s not forget that a Hollywood movie’s primary goal is entertainment. And “Novocaine,” I have to say, delivers plenty of entertainment.

Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, along with screenwriter Lars Jacobson, keep the film light on its feet, pausing typically only for some knockdown drag-out fights. I would say that similar to M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap” last year, the film does have a third act problem of not knowing when enough is enough. It’s a bit like watching a fireworks display and spending the last twenty minutes thinking that every display going off is the start of the finale.

There are much worse movies and protagonists to spend additional time with, so it’s not a problem crying out for a solution, it’s just noticeably saggy in the third act. There are a shocking amount of loose ends that need tying up in this film, and they get to most of them. The pacing suffers, but we can’t have everything, can we?

It sucks that “Novocaine” came out on the heels of “Love Hurts,” another achingly sincere action movie with a similarly likable leading man, because there’s not much distinguishing the two for old Joe Six-Pack. It is a niche film whose appeal is broadened by both its star and some cleverly violent action scenes, but a movie this violent will never have four-quadrant appeal unless it stars Jesus Christ.

In the battle of movies with this title, I would say that “Novocaine” ranks well above the Steve Martin dentist movie, but who will be impressed by me saying that? If you’re a certain kind of couple, let’s say, who enjoys horror movies or creative kills or sweetly romantic yet absurdly violent flicks, “Novocaine” will make a hell of a date night. The rest of you—and you know who you are—leave your significant other at home.

RATING: ***