Directed by: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Written by Anna Harrison
60/100
Over the past several years, “nepo babies” have become a hot topic of discussion. Oftentimes, the jokes write themselves as celebrities from Jamie Lee Curtis to Lily-Rose Depp defend their privilege by denying it, sounding so out-of-touch that you have to wonder briefly if their ears are working properly, because do they hear themselves talking? But, lest we begin to disparage all of the offspring of Hollywood of old, let us remember that shining beacon of hope for nepo babies everywhere: Jack Quaid.
Quaid, whose first onscreen appearance was in “The Hunger Games,” has been having one hell of a year with his villainous role as a toxic boyfriend in “Companion” and now his leading man debut on the big screen with “Novocaine.” (I actually don’t know if this is his first lead role in a movie but it certainly feels like it, so I’m just going to say it is.) He has never once stuck his foot in his mouth about his famous parentage and has perfected the role of cute, awkward everyman who finds himself stuck in a series of escalating ridiculous situations; here, his name is Nathan Caine, and he is having a very bad day.
Well, let’s rewind: before his bad day, Nathan had a lot of boring ones. Born with a congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (aka CIPA), Nathan can’t feel pain. This sounds great in theory, until you realize that it means he could impale himself or bite off his tongue without knowing, and so Nate has led a sheltered existence. His home has tennis balls on the corner of every table so he doesn’t nick himself, he gets his nutrition via smoothie, and the highlight of his day is playing an MMORPG with his online friend, Roscoe (Jacob Batalon). That all changes when Nathan meets the girl of his dreams, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), who encourages him to get out of his comfort zone and even dare to eat a slice of pie.
Suddenly, his life seems brighter—that is, until the bank he and Sherry work at gets robbed and Sherry gets taken as a hostage. Hence, the very bad day.
What follows is, by and large, predictable—Nate decides to chase down the robbers (Ray Nicholson, another talented nepo baby, alongside Conrad Kemp and Evan Hengst) and trouble ensues—but thanks to Nate’s disability, there’s just enough of a fresh twist to keep “Novocaine” interesting. Since he can’t feel pain, he’s okay with doing things like sticking his hand into a deep fryer or slamming his knuckles into fallen glass. It’s one thing to watch a character get pushed into boiling oil or dragged against the remnants of a shattered mirror; it’s another thing entirely to see someone do so voluntarily.
Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen delight in making the audience squirm, and there were several times I had to peek through my fingers at the screen. The action sequences themselves are nothing too flashy and, like the rest of the movie, are buoyed by the gimmick rather than skill. At a only slightly less than two hours long, “Novocaine” does start to overstay its welcome—there are only so many jokes you can tell with the same setup and punchline—but Quaid keeps it all afloat with his affability and boyish charm. The end result is a movie that is never less than fun but also never more than “pretty good,” but hey, if we can keep unproblematic fave nepo baby Jack Quaid on my screen, I’m happy.
“Novocaine” Trailer
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