Novocaine No Pain – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on the 3rd of April 2025
Paramount Pictures presents a film by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Written by Lars Jacobson
Produced by Joby Harold, Tory Tunnell, Drew Simon, Sam Speiser, Julian Rosenberg, and Matt Schwartz
Starring Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, and Jacob Batalon
Cinematography Jacques Jouffret
Edited by Christian Wagner
Music by Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski
Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 109 minutes
Release Date: the 3rd of April 2025
Novocaine No Pain tells the story of Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid), an assistant manager at a bank who lives a quiet, introverted life. He has a good heart as he helps his clients avoid foreclosure. Yet not much is known about him, as his outside life is questioned by his associates. He does however spend time playing online gaming with a friend, Roscoe (Jacob Batalon, doing his usual BFF act really well), whom he has never seen in person. What they do not know about Caine is that he is afflicted with a rare genetic disorder called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (or CIPA as he calls it). While some may see it as a trait similar to a superhero power, Caine has gone through many hardships with it due to bullying and harassment at a young age (leading to titular nickname), numerous health problems, and missing out on the simple pleasures of life like eating cherry pie.
But his luck changes when he meets Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a new bank teller with whom Caine falls in love with at first sight. Her wide-eyed, outgoing and nurturing nature, her artistic ambitions, and their shared figurative battle scars charms him and allows him to open up about his condition, which then leads the two to fall for each other. But their blossoming romance comes to a screeching halt when a violent bank robbery (led by a group all dressed up in Santa Claus costumes) ensues, where the lead bank robber Simon (Ray Nicholson) kidnaps Sherry. In a race against time, Nathan takes it upon himself to rescue Sherry.
Novocaine No Pain is the latest film from directing team Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. They are best known for their genre entries starring the great Maika Monroe, including the dark comedy Villains and the single location thriller Significant Other. They take on their biggest film to date and are armed with rising stars, a fantastic high concept and potential to send-up genre formulae. Do the directors deliver or will the film be an arduous experience to sit through?
Novocaine No Pain belongs in a group of niche ultraviolent action films that fulfils these three specific tropes: high-concept, mid-budget, and low-logic. With a concept revolving around a real medical disorder, the film will take numerous liberties in its portrayal. However, with the concept, the filmmakers can change the genre formula by giving the titular fall guy a trait that makes the action over-the-top and insanely gruesome.
Berk, Olsen, and screenwriter Lars Jacobson prepare the first act of the film well by letting the audience endear the main characters, establishing their characterisations as well as the romance that drives the film forward. Quaid (Son of Dennis) and Midthunder are a charming, affable screen pairing that spark almost immediately. They share a genial back-and-forth and Midthunder makes it incredibly easy to believe that Quaid would commit the actions that he does to rescue her, as evident in the use of the cherry pie that opens him up to her.
But once the proverbial shit hits the fan, Berk, Olsen, and Jacobsen stage some exciting and hilarious set-pieces that places the out-of-place Quaid amongst highly skilled and formidable opponents in the most situational of places like a restaurant kitchen, a tattoo parlour, and a home that is filled with booby traps that would make Wile E. Coyote laugh. While the film could have fallen for the trap by overdoing the sort of self-aware humour that plagued the Deadpool films and most of genre cinema — because being post-modern means never having to say you are sorry and never having to admit you are making a proper genre film – it tips its hat to ridiculousness of the situation without sacrificing the pacing, momentum, or drama driving the narrative. The film also moves at a decent clip and manages to balance the ultraviolence with the genial tone that makes the film crowd-pleasing and easy to enjoy.
Regrettably, what the filmmakers do not do is make the novel concept much more than its singular punchline. There are solid stakes set in the story as we see Midthunder’s character progress through the narrative in novel ways as well as Nicholson (son of Jack) displaying some wild energy as the nominal villain/serial optimist. Yet, we rarely feel any danger for the protagonist himself as he ramshackles [sic] through his predicaments without any of his injuries subduing him severely. Most of the suspense is through the comedy as to how Caine can withstand such grisly lashings of ultraviolence and contraptions and Quaid (and his stunt double) is a great sport in rolling with the punches.
Overall, Novocaine No Pain is a fun, exciting, and boisterously bloody time at the movies that takes its novel concept, runs with it with cartoonish glee, and is led by a charming pairing in Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder. Recommended.
Summary: Novocaine No Pain is a fun, exciting, and boisterously bloody time at the movies that takes its novel concept, runs with it with cartoonish glee, and is led by a charming pairing in Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder. Recommended.
3.5
Joyous
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