Sometimes you just know the people that you have to fight for….

In theatres tomorrow, Novocaine has an unexpected charm to it all that you can’t help but get caught up in even though you know that you aren’t expending a single molecule of grey matter on this movie which is also endearingly pretty dumb.

When the girl of his dreams (Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, everyman Nate (Jack Quaid) turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back.

It’s fair to say that Novocaine might actually be the birth of a new sub-genre because I at least for one can’t remember the last ultra-violent rom-com I’ve ever seen, but that’s what this is.

It keeps it all simple and points in the direction of the mayhem because we can all get invested in the awkward guy trying to get his girl back.

The directing team of Dan Berk & Robert Olsen who have found a certain degree of success in the mid-tier horror/thriller wheel house may have actually found their sweet spot here because this movie is about as much of a straight line as they come.  They kept it all on the tracks in a quick and efficient manner and it never has any lulls.

The script from screenwriter Lars Jacobsen crackles with a certain degree of kinetic energy because it successfully follows the rule of keeping it simple stupid.  Nerdy guy with chronic condition holding him back, meets a woman, they hook up and he’s in love…there isn’t a nerdy guy out there who won’t embrace this concept.

When you marry all that with some pretty intense and often brutal action sequences it makes for a fun ride because everyone involved in this movie is actively looking for ways to entertain us in the most original ways that they can think of as Nate gets his ass handed to him all across the city in the service of true love.

2025 just might be Jack Quaid’s year , from his epic run’s on Prime Video’s The Boys and Paramount’s Star Trek: Lower Decks to earlier this year’s Companion he’s successfully embracing he’s strengths as an on screen every man who isn’t afraid to have a little bit of a silly yet legitimate edge to himself all at the same time.

After breaking through in 2022’s Prey; Amber Midthunder is carving out some space for herself as a viable romantic lead who also manages to have enough comedic chops to keep up with Jack Quaid’s Nate.  All she really has to do is sell all the insanity, which she does surprisingly well riding the roller coaster of this story.  Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel and Matt Walsh round out the ensemble to sell the general insanity of it all, which is truly anchored by Quaid simply because the film doesn’t forget the cold hard truth that if we’re going to follow a guy for 110 minutes as he gets the crap beat out of him, we actually have to have an emotional investment in him as a person.

Sure, it’s probably a little too long but this story of Nathan Caine who can’t feel pain hits us straight in the feels quite simply because Novocaine is all about having those feelings that we chase every day.  Love can easily rip a man’s arm out of his socket, but when it doesn’t its unforgettable….and that’s worth the pain