‘Novocaine’ is About a Guy Who Can’t Feel Pain, But You’ll Probably Feel Plenty of Pleasure While Watching It

March 12, 2025

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Jack Quaid as Mr. Novocaine (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh

Directors: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: R for Grave Bodily Injuries

Release Date: March 14, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: San Diego resident Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) spends his days working his sensible job as a bank executive and his evenings at home playing video games. He’s never really allowed himself to aspire to much more than that, which makes sense when you consider that he has congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP). After all, if he eats solid food, he might accidentally bite his tongue off and not even realize it. So better to opt for the most vanilla life possible and not risk any danger that his body won’t be able to warn him about. But then one day, he goes on a date with his new co-worker Sherry (Amber Midthunder), and she scrambles his brain so much that he starts to think it might actually be worth taking a risk here and there. So much so that when she’s taken hostage by bank robbers the very next day, Nathan decides to turn into an avenging superhero to set her free.

What Made an Impression?: The Sensitive Man’s Unlikely Action Hero: Jack Quaid is having quite the starmaking moment. He’s been banging around in big ensembles like Oppenheimer and Scream, while also letting loose with frequent guest appearances on the podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! He nailed it as the lead earlier this year in the robots-gone-wrong thriller Companion, and now he’s an even bigger casting coup in Novocaine. If he’s going to play a badass, of course it’s going to be the type of badass who can’t feel anything physically while feeling plenty emotionally. This movie is knowingly over-the-top, capturing the feeling of life-changing love making you do things that you never thought were possible. Nathan is profoundly in over his head, but for a guy who’s been living out under his head his entire life, it’s basically impossible not to cheer on his foolhardiness.
Loyal and Goofy Support: I simply mustn’t ignore the clutch supporting cast surrounding Quaid. First of all, Midthunder nails the hook of adorability (while harboring a secret that prevents her from drifting into manic pixie dream girl territory). Then we’ve got Jacob Batalan as Nathan’s video game buddy Roscoe, the latest in his specialty of preternaturally reliable friends. And finally, there are a couple of detectives on Nathan’s trail in the form of Betty Gabriel and, wait for it … Upright Citizens Brigade co-founder Matt Walsh. It should be a law (if it’s not already) that serious action movies like this must have a comedy legend like Walsh in an essential supporting role. Does this all add up to a movie that’s effective enough to cure CIP among any of its viewers? Not literally. But metaphorically? Definitely.

Novocaine is Recommended If You Like: Die Hard, John Wick, First dates

Grade: 4 out of 5 Gunshot Wounds

‘It Lives Inside,’ Which is to Say: A Relentless Indian Demon Comes to High School

September 21, 2023

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

TFW It lives inside… (CREDIT: NEON/Screenshot)

Starring: Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Vik Sahay, Betty Gabriel, Gage Marsh, Beatrice Kitsos

Director: Bishal Dutta

Running Time: 99 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Demonic Lacerations

Release Date: September 22, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Samidha (Megan Suri) has been losing touch with her Indian heritage, but it hasn’t been losing touch with her. She’s drifted apart from her friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), who seems to have completely lost touch with reality. While holding tightly to a jar containing something foreboding, she desperately turns to Sam for help, while insisting that the spirits their family told them about when they were kids are actually real. Then she inexplicably disappears, leaving Sam to be beset by the same demon, known as a Pishach. It looks like she’s doomed to repeat the same fate as Tamira. But there’s some hope, as she has that example to learn from, and she can also seek support from a trusted teacher (Betty Gabriel), as well as her parents (Neeru Bajwa and Vik Sahay), if she can manage not to be completely estranged from them.

What Made an Impression?: Coming-of-Age Metaphor: Don’t we all feel like we’re being pursued by an immortal demon during our teenage years? Maybe not everyone would describe that transitional period with that precise description, but there’s a reason why this stage of life is so perennially ripe for metaphor. There had yet to be a mainstream American film featuring Hindu demons to get that point across (at least not that I’m aware of), so writer/director Bishal Dutta went ahead and corrected that little oversight. It was a fresh call, and I’m sure I’m not the only horror fan who will appreciate the invigoration.

Good Grub: Ultimately, It Lives Inside contends that the best way to keep a Pishach at bay is a strongly bonded community, particularly one that regularly makes time for actually sitting down for dinner. Throughout the film, Sam’s mom Poorna constantly chastises her for not showing up on the days when they gather with friends and family to celebrate their culture. It’s a straightforward, unsurprising espousal of values, but it definitely hits its target. And it’s all underscored by a message that a family that eats together will survive together. You can practically see the demon-fighting powers during the culinary close-ups. Overall, It Lives Inside keeps its ambitions tight and focused, as it pulls off its simple, small-scale goals.

It Lives Inside is Recommended If You Like: Learning how to be a better child to your parent, or a better parent to your child

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Pishachs

This Is a Movie Review: Unfriended: Dark Web

July 21, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

CREDIT: BH Tilt

Unfriended: Dark Web repeats the same format and many of the same methods as the first Unfriended, but the feelings it inspires are of a different breed. The original was a dark morality tale about some truly awful teenagers experiencing karmic justice. But the twenty-somethings in Dark Web all appear to be decent human beings, yet the fates they experience are even worse. It is a thoroughly cruel movie, though I hesitate to call it mean-spirited, as the type of sadistic evil it presents does exist in the real world, and it can therefore work as a bleak warning.

Once again, the action unspools via Skype conversation and other laptop applications. Instead of a vengeful ghost, the big bad this time is a network of criminal hackers. Their technical prowess strains credulity, though it might be a case of sufficiently advanced (fictional) technology appearing like magic to us. (It might have been a good idea to explain it a tad.) Standout features include the difficulty of communicating via sign language over a computer and a particularly fraught case of the dilemma of being forced to choose which of two loved ones gets to survive. Telling the entire story on a laptop screen is once again initially disorienting but then disarmingly natural. Overall, my reaction to Dark Web is much like my reaction to Phantom Thread: I appreciate how well-made it is, but the experience of watching it is just so unpleasant.

I give Unfriended: Dark Web 3 Trephinations out of 5 Facebook Messages.