Novocaine

Novocaine delivered the gimmick movie goods I was hoping for. 

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Scott's Self-Indulgent Movie Podcast · Episode 995: Novocaine

One of the unfortunate results of the modern obsession with intellectual property is a lack of "gimmick movies." A gimmick movie is my name for a movie that uses a standard movie setup and applies a novel element or gimmick to it. Speed is a good example. A hostage standoff between a cop and a criminal isn't novel, but having to keep a bus going at 50 mph is. So when I saw previews for Novocaine, an action thriller starring one of my favorite nepo babies Jack Quaid, about an average guy who can't feel pain trying to track down some bank robbers who captured a girl he likes, I was very excited. Now that's a gimmick. And as it turns out, also a pretty fun movie.

The Setup

Quaid stars Nate, an isolated assistant bank manager who keeps everyone and everything at arm's length. Why? Due to a genetic defect, Nate can't feel pain and as a result has constructed a sterile, safe life away from any risks. That all changes when his coworker Sherry gets Jack to come out of his shell and even enjoy life. So when Sherry is kidnapped during a brazen morning back robbery, Jack will use every resource he has, and his inability to feel pain, to save her.

Sometimes a movie just works. It's not fancy or likely to end up on a bunch of year end lists, but it does everything right. Novocaine is one of those movies. And a big reason why is how the movie uses the gimmick.

The Gimmick is Everything

One of the smartest things about Novocaine is how the gimmick of "our hero can't feel pain," is integral to almost every aspect of the film. Up until now, this disorder has only been a curse for Nate who has carefully planned out every aspect of his life to avoid bodily harm. Makes perfect sense considering he can't feel pain and as such has to be hyper-aware of something as mundane as a table edge, because he could get cut without realizing it and he could either bleed out or it'll get infected and he'll die.

Which means any sort of direct human connection, let alone a romantic one, is exactly the kind of "lose your head and go action hero mode" motivation Nate needs to not only to truly live like but also treat his disorder like a gift versus a curse.

And we haven't even gotten into the set pieces that all play like funny gore or torture porn gross out gags (more on this later). 

This is the segment where a lot of movies stumble, not because the beats are bad. More often than not movies like this drag due to repetition. If Nate spent the majority of this movie getting the shit kicked out of him and basically winning his fights because his opponents gas themselves over and over again, the movie wouldn't work.

Instead the script conjures up novel ways to amp up small 1-2 person fight scenes via the kind of opponent or the location with the punctuation being a new idea or use of Nate's disorder to gain the upper hand and win before moving onto the next target. It's a nice little pattern that both keeps escalating as the movie progresses and never gets old thanks to a brisk 100 minute run time. And it's a light 100 minutes.

The movie also does it's best to put limitations on its wild premise. Non-lethal injuries may not kill Nate, but blood loss and trauma could cause him to pass out, so he's gotta find ways to patch himself up or pump himself full of adrenaline to keep going. Kinda a "yeah we know this isn't how a body can/should work even if they had this condition, but we're not having him detach limbs and put them back on." It's all very well thought out.

An Action Body Horror Comedy?

When you have a hero who can't feel pain, you've got a lot of built in opportunities for cringe-inducing gags. And Novocaine has plenty of those to spare. Nate gets beaten to hell and back again on a regular basis, because he doesn't really feel it which means the punchline for a lot of these scenes is just how egregious an injury he's willing to sustain or even inflict on himself to get what he wants. 

This means a lot of intense close-ups on what's about to be an awful injury and some solid visual foreshadowing where the camera follows Nate's eyes as he contemplates his next move, and then we get action movie level payoffs as Nate succeeds.

But that premise, Nate not feeling pain, also has another built-in comedic bent: Nate's non-reactions. As intense as so many of the action beats are both in visuals, gore and beyond, Nate's non-response is a persistent source of deadpan jokes that upend genre tropes. 

For instance, we've seen a lot of scenes where our hero is is beaten up, maybe shot, and needs to perform amateur surgery on themselves to make sure they don't die. These scenes are usually tense and full of screaming. Whereas Nate's versions of these scenes are calm, matter of fact, and feature Nate doing the work on himself. And if we have someone nearby who's looking wide-eyed at Nate for not even breathing hard throughout this procedure all the better.

Great Casting

Casting Jack Quaid as a generally reserved nice guy who's pushed to the brink through violent action only to carry out his own is...right on the money. Not just because of the overlaps between Nate and Quaid's The Boys character Hughie are so strong, but also because he has great comedic timing (which means the sarcastic asides are all thrown away perfectly) and he doesn't have the typical action hero physique. Yes he's tall, but he's not built like a linebacker, so when you see him pick up a gun or a knife, it really looks like it's his first time.

And Quaid is surrounded by a fantastic collection of supporting players including a deeper than expected turn from Prey's Amber Midthunder as Nate's love interest (charming as hell too), Ray Nicholson drifting between kinda funny dickhead and dangerous psychopath almost as well as his dad, and Jacob Batalon playing to type as Nate's online gaming buddy. 

Almost the entire cast is asked to flip flop their tone depending on the scene and they all do a magnificent job of staying on this movie's wavelength.

The Verdict: A Great Gimmick

By integrating its gimmick into every aspect of its story and letting its talented cast shine, Novocaine delivered the gimmick movie goods I was hoping for. 8/10