Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of March 10, 2025
Novocaine
Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and grisly images
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%
In Theaters
Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) is just a friendly, nerdy assistant bank manager with a disease that leaves him unable to feel actual pain. Since he must be extremely careful in his life choices, he spends most of his time playing video games at home when he’s not at work. But when he quickly falls in love with a new bank employee (Amber Midthunder) he begins to consider throwing caution to the wind. And when she is taken hostage by a trio of bank robbers, he goes after them with reckless abandon in order to get her back. Ever since he came on the scene with The Boys, Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), has become a very popular lovable loser. And he plays that to a T here. You immediately like him and want him to succeed in love and life, while feeling bad for his disability. But while he can die from even minor mistakes like chewing solid food (apparently he can bite his tongue off and not know it), his exploits become incredibly fun to watch as you feel the pain that he doesn’t. The filmmakers find increasingly creative ways for Nathan to hurt himself without actually hurting himself, and the worse it gets, the funnier (and cringier) it gets also. Of course there are some mental gymnastics you have to get past, like the almost complete lack of law enforcement (apparently, the San Diego police department takes off during the Christmas holiday), but those issues are handled well by Matt Walsh and Betty Gabriel, who at least make the paltry police presence entertaining. Overall, this is a really entertaining date movie with an edge that hits as a thriller, romantic comedy and pseudo horror flick due to the extremely violent images that will have you looking away much of the time. A-