Feeling No Pain … Even When Fully Sober
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Here’s the trailer:
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If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) works at the San Diego Trust credit union, is attracted to co-worker Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), but has an empty social life because of a rare genetic disease which prevents him from feeling pain—although his body can be easily harmed so he has to be very careful in all of his activities, including only nourishment via liquid options such as smoothies and milkshakes because he fears chewing on something could cause him to bite off his tongue without even knowing it. His life expectancy was only 25, but he’s managed to get beyond that, constantly taking good care of himself, as well as being decent to others such as client Earl (Lou Beatty Jr.) whose financial situation near Christmas is about to become devastating so Nate takes action to help him through the holidays. Sherry’s aware of his interest, though, so she gets him to meet her at a bar where Nate’s middle-school bully recognizes him, still makes some insulting remarks, notes he’s the one who gave Nate the nickname of “Novocaine”*; Sherry responds by asking for them to all be friends, offers shots on her tab, except the bully’s turns out to be hot sauce which causes him great consternation. Next, Nate and Sherry are in a diner where she tries to get him to take a bit of her favorite cherry pie which he declines, explaining his condition to her (along with us), but she convinces him to do so anyway which he really enjoys. Then they’re off to his place for a night of sex; she’s gone in the morning, yet leaves him a sweet note. However, Nate’s day isn’t what he expects because at work 3 robbers dressed as Santa Claus storm into the Trust (on Christmas Eve as I recall), end up killing manager Nigel (Craig Jackson) because he won’t open the safe, threaten harm to Sherry so Nate gives up the combination as the thieves rush off in 2 cars, taking a large sum of cash and Sherry as a hostage. The police arrive as the crooks scram, no pursuit likely so distressed Nate jumps in one of their cars, takes off after the robbers but he's just following 1 guy as the other 2 rush away with all of the loot and Sherry.
*Yes, Spell Check tells me to drop the final “e,” but that’s the movie's title so let's just live with it, OK?
From this point on, most of this movie is just one violent encounter after another, as Nate is harmed in many ways but continues on his mission because he’s not feeling the pain that would have easily stopped anyone else. First, he catches up with Ben Clark (Evan Hengst), determined to find out from him where his buddies have taken Sherry. They go from an alley into a kitchen, have a horrendous fight, concludes when Nate pulls a gun out of a fryer of hot grease (hand damage, but no impact for him), accidently kills Ben, then takes a photo of a tattoo on Ben’s arm, contacts Roscoe Dixon (Jacob Batalon)—a gamer friend he’s never met in person—for help in finding the tattoo artist in hopes of getting more info on Ben which leads him to burly Zeno (Garth Collins). Of course, they fight as well, somehow Nate gets the upper hand, learns Ben’s address, goes there, finds the place booby-trapped, get caught upside-down in a snare, calls Roscoe to rescue him, but instead he gets a visit from Ben’s brother, Andre Clark (Conrad Kemp)—another one of the robbers—who realizes Nate killed Ben so Andre starts torturing Nate (who fakes being hurt) until Roscoe arrives, clobbers Andre, who regains consciousness so (you guessed it) there's another fight; this round, Andre dies.
Police Det. Mincy Langston (Betty Gabriel) and other cops arrive at the house (I forget why they’re there; I guess they figured out who Ben was), arrest who they assume is Nate (Det. Langston thinks he was in on the robbery), but it’s actually Roscoe disguised as Nate who’s now gotten enough info to find Sherry; however, she’s with her brother, Simon Greenly (Ray Nicholson)—the last of the robbers—who lets us know she was part of the plot all along with the original intention of getting the Trust vault combination from Nate, but that didn’t work out fast enough, even as Sherry’s now truly attracted to Nate. ⇒Simon’s about to kill Nate when Langston and her partner, Coltraine Duffy (Matt Walsh), arrive, Duffy wounding Simon, but he recovers enough to kill Coltraine, wound Langston, escape in the ambulance that Nate’s in. After another wild chase, Simon breaks Nate’s arm, is about to kill Sherry when Nate dispatches him instead. As the cops catch up to all of this Nate’s out cold, sent to a hospital with major injures; when he wakes up he finds he’s been given a light sentence of 6 months of house arrest, 5 years of probation, while Sherry’s arrested but with a shorter sentence also. A year later Nate visits her in jail where they share a piece of cherry pie.⇐
SO WHAT? In its own odd way this is a fascinating movie because Nate being impervious to pain allows us to see how a person could keep moving, fighting, defending himself from a personal attack even when he’s been shot in the arm (extracts the bullet when he goes to Earl’s shop to patch himself up after the intense altercation with Ben) or has to walk around with an arrow all the way through his leg as a result of one of the traps hidden in Ben’s house. Of course, his constant bodily damage does take its toll on him ⇒as we see when he’s in the hospital with most of himself covered in casts and bandages⇐ because the lack of pain doesn’t also mean a lack of impact as all these various assaults finally leave him unable to even retain consciousness so we have to force ourselves to acknowledge what a horrible series of traumatic events he’s had to endure for our vicarious pleasure as he’s constantly bashed around in a manner that would have stopped any one of us from even continuing to move had such tragedy happened to us, but he's on a quest. (I can marginally relate to a little of Nate’s situation regarding his fear of eating solid food to prevent unfelt damage to his tongue in that I had a dental procedure some years ago where some of my gum had to be cut away so after I left the dentist’s office I stopped to get a hamburger for lunch with the Novocain [OK, I’ll accept Spell Check in this instance; I can be reasonable] still in effect so I didn’t realize until some blood dripped out onto my plate I’d been chewing on the inside of my mouth along with the burger.)
However, what makes this movie intriguing with its unique plot twists also becomes somewhat off-putting in its constant repetition of Nate being banged around all over the place with no hesitation on his part to continue these combats just because his body isn’t telling him to shut down. Brief descriptions of this movie often refer to it as an “action comedy,” with me waiting longer than I thought was necessary to get to the comedic aspects, although after seeing Nate endure all of the violence slammed on him by Ben and Andre it does become a bit funny when Roscoe shows up at Ben’s house, tries to throw a knife at Andre but it goes right through Nate’s hand instead with no concern from Nate, as if he’s now getting used to being treated as a human crash dummy. With that trepidation about the basic scene being rerun so often I decided on 3 stars, though I do respect the choreography of these fights, even as I was wondering how the filmmakers would return to the well.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: Novocaine debuted in domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on March 14, 2025, apparently gone by now, with grosses of $19.9 million ($34.2 million worldwide), so if you want to see it streaming seems to be your choice, where you can find it for free as a Paramount+ subscriber ($7.99 monthly if not) or rent it for $5.99 from Apple TV+. The CCAL’s divided on this one with Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 81%, while the Metacritic average score dips down to 58%. I’ll let Brandon Yu of The New York Times speak for those who enjoy it: “You might call the premise a gimmick, but the film has just enough imagination to make this a breezy enough ride, one where the fun is in our flinching. […] the violent comedy works most of all through Quaid, who is natural and nimble in embodying the funny paradox of a nebbishy hero who just won’t go down. That spin on the indestructible man is, on paper, what’s meant to make ‘Novocaine’ stand out from the John Wicks and Jason Stathams we know so well.” But, to quote Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 1971), “On the other hand” is Jen Yamato from The Washington Post: “The weightless repetition and lack of real stakes make this high-concept dud a slog, and that’s saying something in an overlong film stuffed with stabbings, one-liners and fingernail trauma. Nathan [...] might not feel pain, but after sitting through ‘Novocaine,’ we sure do.”
It's enjoyable enough to recommend (depending on seeing such one-on-one violence), but I admit plot developments don’t grow much beyond the initial premise; still you might want to see effective acting from Quaid, son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. Or, maybe you’d prefer to listen to my usual end-of-review Musical Metaphor, this time Billy Joel’s* “Just the Way You Are” (1977 The Stranger album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJWM5FmZyqU where Sherry can say to Nate, despite his physical malady, and he can say to her, despite the unintentional trauma she caused him: “I would not leave in times of trouble / We never could have come this far / I took the good times, I’ll take the bad times / I take you just the way you are.” To successfully connect with this movie you have to take these folks just the way they are, so give some thought to seeing it yourself.
*With due concern for his current medical problems, requiring cancellations of intended concerts.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Here's a cluster of options for your invested consideration: (1) IMDb's big list of 2025 summer movies; (2) Netflix list of 2025 summer movies; (3) IMDb's Five Things to Watch on the week of 5/26/2025; (4) The New York Times 10 Best Movies of 2025 so far; (5) Recent theatrical releases you can now watch at home; (6) Current top movies and streaming series on Netflix.
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