No pain no gain: A movie review of ‘Novocaine’

April 7th, 2025 (Review)

By Alexis Rosa  

With fresh new ideas, great acting, a solid script, exciting visuals, a dash of romance, laugh out loud moments, no huge budget, and just a good time at the movie theatre when you see it; ‘Novocaine’ defines good cinema. This film has been successful and yet still seemingly underrated. This is disappointing since it did so many things right unlike a lot of movies that have been put out there lately. It seemed to be advertised very well.

I go to the movies once a month and I saw a trailer for it each time since December of last year, I saw it advertised on cable and streaming a few times too. Unfortunately, it’s a mix of huge movies coming out with higher budgets around the same time and people not going to the theatres anymore. Hopefully after reading this review, you’ll want to make the trip to see ‘Novocaine’ in the movie theaters!  

‘Novocaine’ was released on March 14th, 2025 by Paramount Pictures. The summary for ‘Novocaine’ on IMDB reads, “When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, a man incapable of feeling physical pain turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her”. This really, was such a fun new idea to bring to the big screen.

The main character Nathan Caine (fun play on words), Nate for short, has a rare condition called ‘Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis’ otherwise known as CIPA. This condition is described as “a disorder of the nervous system which prevents the feeling of pain or temperature and prevents a person from sweating”. So not only does this movie showcase and teach an audience about a rare disorder, but it also develops a whole plot around it and made an awesome movie. Nate is a superhero in human form.  

The movie’s runtime is one hour and fifty minutes. A lot of movies nowadays seem like they are so long and dragged out. This movie was fast paced and kept your attention. Nothing was left unsaid, and everything was to the point. This movie is described as a dark comedy, action, and thriller. That’s what also made the movie successful for me. It was a mix of things, but it was done right where it didn’t feel overwhelming. It has a ‘R’ rating, which is extremely fair. The violence and gore can be a lot since Nathan can’t feel any pain, so the movie really pushes the characters limits.  

It was directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. Both have been relatively lowkey, so this movie was truly their breakout moment. If this is what they have to offer I’m excited to see what else they can produce. It was written and produced by Lars Jacobson, another lowkey person with a breakout moment with this movie. This was a young cast but all of them have been around for a while.  

Two of the cast members have famous dads so acting runs in their blood. Jack Quaid stars as Nate, his father being Dennis Quaid. Jack Quaid has been very successful and really has shown talent. He really came alive in this movie. Amber Midthunder stars as Sherry, Nate’s love interest. Jacob Batalon stars as Roscoe, Nate’s best and only friend. Ray Nicholson stars as Simon, one of Nate’s enemies in the movie, his father is Jack Nicholson. A lot of big names who are still so young are paving the way for their careers. All of them shined.  

‘Novocaine’ has not yet been nominated or won any awards seeing as it was just released this year. There is still time to see if it will be nominated for any future awards. Jack Quaid’s acting in this movie is worthy of a nomination. The originality of this movie would also be worthy of a nomination. We will have to see what the future holds.