Jack Quaid has stepped into many iconic franchise roles, from playing Clark Kent in My Adventures with Superman, to Hughie in The Boys, and Brad Boimler in Star Trek: Lower Decks. This time, in Novocaine, Jack Quaid kills it as an original character of his own. The film has grotesque visuals and gore on par with the likes of John Wick, but infused with Jack Quaid’s trademark good guy energy that will have audiences laughing throughout. Novocaine is drop dead hilarious with a great cast.
Novocaine is in theaters now.
Jack Quaid stars as Nathan Caine, a kind person with a medical condition. While on a date with Sherry (Amber Midthunder), Nate explains that he has CIPA, congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis. Growing up with this condition, he was given the nickname, “Novocaine,” by middle school bullies. Nate, or Novocaine, is the junior manager of a bank in San Diego, which gets robbed. When the bank robbers take Sherry during their heist, Nate finds himself using his disability to fight back, kicking off an epic action adventure.
Following the bank robbery, Nate is on a mission to catch up with the robbers and save Sherry. Since he is unable to feel pain, the action sequences get increasingly violent. In one scene, he grabs a hot cast-iron skillet to hit someone with, and in another, even reaches into a frying basket full of hot oil to grab his weapon. To juxtapose with the gore however, the film shows that Nate feels terrible about inflicting this harm. During a fight, he even gives one of his opponents advice on treating the wound. Over the course of the film, Nate gets better and more creative with his fighting style, but he still screams when hurting someone. It makes for a very comedic viewing experience because Nate is just as uncomfortable inflicting pain as the audience is watching it on the screen.
Among the comedic elements is the pain Nate goes through during his adventure. One scene shows Nate entering a booby-trapped house and getting hit with a morning star, shot in the leg with a crossbow, and suffering other injuries that would be fatal to anyone else. During another fight, he gets stabbed in the hand with a knife, which he then uses as his own weapon. As the story progresses, his hand gets increasingly injured, highlighted by the excellent makeup work that make the injuries look real and grotesque.
The action in Novocaine is so fun to watch because Quaid is not your typical action hero. Nate is a lovable, sweet-hearted man who apologizes for the punches he throws. His character isn’t one you’d assume to be committing murder, which makes his character so relatable. Jack Quaid delivers such a good performance, especially at using his character’s condition to his unique advantage. At one point, Nate punches glass shards to use them as a sort of brass knuckles tool. In another, he tattoos his own hand as a notepad.
Another amusing aspect of the character is that until the events of this film, Nate had never had pie before. While on their date, Nate reveals to Sherry that he doesn’t eat solid foods, for fear of biting his tongue off. When he eventually tries pie, he is blown away by the flavor. Quaid does a great job of showing the experience of eating delicious food for the first time.
Amber Midthunder as Sherry is also a force in this film, playing the character with a lot of charisma. Because of her ability and talent, I would have liked to see the writing allow for more action from Midthunder, given her experience with Prey. Still, she lights up the screen with her presence.
Jacob Batolon is Roscoe, who is Nate’s online best friend. The pair have a relatable friendship, especially in the post-Covid age. During the pandemic, I made many close gaming relationships, much like Nate and Roscoe. They have a strong bond, despite not having met in real life. As someone with many online gaming friends, I found this to be a grounding and realistic aspect that many young people can relate to, especially in recent years. In my recent interview with Batalon, he spoke about how he relates to the experience.
Novocaine the film is a lot of fun, and very much leans into the ridiculousness of it all. The film is clever with its use of plot twists, but there are quite a few of them. The plot twists and reveals are well done. For example one reveal among the bank robbers is only done through a subtle shift in the dialogue.
As entertaining as the film is, there are moments when the dialogue is overly campy, and the editing over-emphasizes the cheesiness, with slo-motion shots and music as a supporting character gets shot, or when Nate is contemplating his relationship with Sherry. Similarly, some of the fight sequences, especially towards the end of the film, are slightly long. While not an issue for the entire movie, it did impact my rating of a largely great film.
Rating – 4/5 Pocky
Jorgie is a Senior Writer at POC Culture and a passionate pop culture fan. Jorgie loves learning about visual effects, production, film, and art, and how they all come together to make epic films like Star Wars.
