Novocaine (2025 movie) - 1-year retrospective, review, and mini-analysis

 

Today marks one year ago since the action/comedy/thriller movie Novocaine was released theatrically on the big screen. It has gotten a 81% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it doesn't take much effort to find out why. "Novocaine" might not reinvent the wheel, but it does bring a rarely-known medical disorder to light and it skillfully handles the compelling storylines of its two main characters very well, all the while balancing the grisly action scenes with laugh-out-loud humor guaranteed to put a smile on your face, and topped off with a generous amount of heart and satisfying payoffs for the two main leads. It's one of the most well-written (but not completely perfect) movies I have ever seen, and I was so lucky to have seen it on the big screen while it had its theatrical run.

NOTE: It goes without saying that there will be SPOILERS ahead. So, if you haven't seen the film yet (or don't plan to), it would be wise to stop there and not go any further. 

Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) is a 30-year old introvert male who works as an assistant manager at a credit union in San Diego, CA, who was born with a medical disorder known as CIPA - Chronic Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis, which means that he cannot feel any pain whatsoever through various means. He starts off as a loner, having been picked on by others and left out because of his medical disability, leaving him with no friends other than Roscoe Dixon (Jacob Batalon), whom he spends his time playing video games online with. He is unwilling to take any chances whatsoever even though his disability lets him feel no pain, because he fears that even the smallest things like small sharp objects - could mean doom for him. He could only consume liquid foods - meaning that he must make all-in-one shakes for breakfast, and only goes out just to get to his job at the credit union and back home.     

When he is at his workplace, he meets up with Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), who has been visiting the bank for a few months now. Nathan starts to warm up to her, and they head out to the diner together for their very first date. Sherry orders a cherry pie, while Nathan orders a vanilla shake. Sherry encourages Nathan to try out the cherry pie. He does, marking the moment that he tries out solid food for the first time ever in his life, and in doing so, takes the very first steps to embracing life and breaking out of his cocoon. Afterwards, they head out to a bar and their bond further deepens when Sherry gets to do a little payback on Nathan's former bully from the time when he was a kid.  

Novocaine (2025) explores the two character's relationships and their development over the course of the narrative as the next day sets the stage for the main conflict, and, in turn, both Nathan and Sherry's biggest challenge yet. As Nathan enjoys his next day at work thanks to accepting Sherry's encouragement, the movie's big bad villain, Simon Greenly (Ray Nicholson - you guessed it, one of Jack's children) and his two henchmen, the Clark Bros, Ben and Andre, walk into the credit union, and they ultimately start a shootout to cause chaos in the building. Simon physically strikes Sherry, and he delivers a cruel beatdown on the bank's manager, Nigel, and demands that he give the code to the safe. Nigel defiantly refuses, but once he uncovers Simon's Santa disguise, the creep shoots him dead. He then gets Nathan to provide the code for the safe and takes Sherry, kidnapping her. This ultimately provokes Nathan to the point that he sets off and starts his mission to get her back, but not before saving a police officer's life after he got gravely injured during the robbery.

Through much of the movie's conflict, Nathan goes up against Ben in the kitchen, using his medical disorder to dunk his hand into a deep fryer to get a gun, and defeats him. He then goes up to Zeno's place, and as he gets into a fight with him, he taps into his condition to punch into broken glass shards and cut out Zeno's eyes with them. He spares Zeno's life, showing that even he has boundaries when it comes to when or when not to take the life of his enemies.      

Along the way, the SDPD detectives Mincy Langston (Betty Gabriel) and Coltraine Duffy (Matt Walsh) try to get to Nathan because they think he's one of the robbers and that he took the police equipment without any permission from the agency. Both Mincy and Duffy are morally questionable at first, because they know that they have to stop the robbers from causing more damage, but they don't realize that Nathan is a man who works at a bank and is just trying to rescue his girlfriend. However, as the movie progresses, they are revealed to be actually helping out both Nathan and Sherry, as well as Roscoe, and Mincy is even open to Nathan's honesty, cementing her as his and Sherry's ally alongside Duffy. So, it's very, very, VERY hard to feel any amount of contempt towards the detectives.

As Nathan gets to Andre, he steps into his booby-trapped house, and Nathan outfoxes him by pretending to feel pain as Andre tortures him. He calls upon Roscoe, and once he arrives, he works alongside his friend to take down Andre. Two robbers down, one more left to go. The part when Andre tortures Nathan is one of the movie's funniest scenes, with Nathan pretending to feel pain all but proven to put a smile on your face and laugh out loud.

The climax is when the film gets into its most serious part, complete with several revelations that will have drastic consequences for the villain AND Nathan and Sherry's story arcs. After getting through one brutal fight after another and reaches Simon's lair, Nathan finally goes up to Simon and demands that he release Sherry from his grasp. Simon, however, spitefully tells him that Sherry is not only his sister - she's his accomplice! And she was the one who was in the robbery! That's why she was visiting for the past few months - to get the code to the safe so that she can get the money alongside Simon, as long as no one got hurt or seriously killed - a rule which her brother ultimately violated. This shocks Nathan so much to the point that he seemingly gives up and resigns himself to his fate, giving Simon the advantage of trying to murder him AND Sherry. He tries to end Sherry, too, despite her feeling immense amounts of regret for her participating in the bank heist AND with her having developed genuine feelings towards Nathan. He tries to do the deadly deed on the two, but he gets gunned down by both Mincy and Duffy in their Big Damn Heroes moment, with Roscoe joining in. The problem seems to be solved with Nathan and Sherry rescued from the fiend, but then Simon gets up back on his feet and shoots BOTH Duffy and Mincy, murdering the former and severely injuring the latter to the point that she is unable to go on and has to be transported to the hospital with Roscoe doing the job, with Simon then making his plan of getting away down to Mexico to catch a boat there so that he can continue his bank robbing and murder spree in a new country, even stealing an ambulance in order to so.

Now, it's up to both Nathan and Sherry to put a stop to Simon's evil plan and his penchant for extreme violence, but they are unable to achieve this until they get over their mental obstacles and work together to take Sherry's evil brother down. This moment marks a pivotal point in BOTH Nathan and Sherry's character growths and their stories. After being ridden with guilt over being Simon's accomplice and with her participation in the bank robbery, alongside Simon injuring several people and outright slaying Nigel for not complying with him, the moment when Simon shows his continued disregard for innocent people by killing Duffy and seriously injuring Mincy marks the moment when she outright becomes disgusted towards Simon, ultimately leading to her long-awaited Heel-Face Turn alongside having developed feelings for Nathan and her love towards him, resulting in her betraying her brother outright and Simon losing the one person who was once his sister and accomplice. This, in turn, activates Nathan Caine's heroic resolution and gives him a renewed motivation to protect Sherry from being killed by her brother or living a life of crime and lawbreaking like Simon has. By that point, Nathan has long since pushed through his fear of dying for the sake of rescuing the girlfriend that he truly loves and made him embrace risk-taking, not just solely to live life fearlessly and to stop isolating himself in his shell for any longer.

As Sherry and Nathan give chase to Simon, Nathan starts up a defibrillator, charges it, and ultimately succeeds in foiling Simon's plan of going to Mexico to continue his bloody heists and innocent victim-killing streak by electrocuting him, resulting in the ambulance that he had stolen to flip over and crash. However, Simon flies into a major rage upon his plan going bust, subjecting Nathan to a major beatdown as Sherry arrives to intervene with her crazed brother. The final showdown also shows Simon learning the hard way on why Nathan Caine - despite his Nice Guy exterior and his condition not allowing him to feel pain making him seemingly a weak person, is a person who is NOT to be trifled with. Simon breaks his arm and stomps on his head, and mocks his disability, saying that he made him feel pain because of what he did. And when Sherry retaliates and assaults her brother in response to Simon hurting her boyfriend, it looks like Simon is going to win as he strangles her and gets a hold of her. However, this ultimately buys time for Nathan to inject himself with the adrenaline to give him a energy boost, and for him to be in "fight" mode - that is, staying behind to fight Simon for the final time and to deliver the final blow on the psychopathic beast to stop him from taking the life of Sherry. And, sure enough, Nathan mercilessly stabs and ends the life of Simon at last, finally putting him to a well-deserved forever sleep and succeeding in his goal of rescuing Sherry in the process before he suffers a post-victory collapse out of exhaustion. 

Once Nathan wakes up from his coma, he's in the hospital, with Mincy, having made a miraculous recovery and surviving what happened to her earlier on during the climax, and with his friend Roscoe. Nathan's triumph over Simon and his rescue of Sherry, may have earned him a victory, but it also came with a price tag: Due to the death and destruction that he had caused, he has to face the consequences of his actions. But, because he saved the life of a police officer and that the only victims that he took the lives of were the three robbers - Simon included, and doing it entirely out of self-defense, no more and no less, he only gets a sentence of 6 months house arrest. Likewise, Sherry, despite having redeemed herself by backstabbing Simon and deciding to help out Nathan and the police instead, gets sentenced to prison for her initial role in the bank robbery, but gets 18 months in said prison instead of a longer sentence due to her doing good. 

What makes the climax of the movie so effective is that not only Nathan and Sherry are fighting to stop Simon from trying to further endanger the lives of many innocent people in cities - civilians and community workers alike - and from further committing atrocious heists at banks - they're fighting to STOP Simon from killing both Nathan and his girlfriend alike. They're NOT letting Simon kill both lovers. And, in the end, they succeeded. Simon learned the hard way considering what he had done, and he did not live to tell his tale. After Nathan makes his astounding recovery one year later after his triumph over Simon and his success in rescuing Sherry, he visits her in prison when she is nearing the end of her sentence for the first anniversary of their date, with a slice of cherry pie - Nathan's first solid food that he has ever tasted, and showing her a tattoo of him and Sherry as knights protecting each other, signifying that, despite the numerous obstacles that they had to endure, their love for each other remained tough as nails throughout. Once the visiting period comes to an end and Sherry goes back to her cell, she refers Nathan to his nickname as he takes a bite of his pie, with a smile on his face, signifying his growth and a newfound confidence towards his own life - with both his and Sherry's lives having a bright future ahead of them.  

What fascinated me about the movie is that it's not just another mindless turn-off-your-brain action movie with a dash of comedy in it - it has a character-driven story for both the main hero and the main heroine amidst all the grisly, blood-soaked action. Nathan Caine's story arc is about him going from being a gentle, timid and unwilling man who is unable to feel any pain, and ultimately learns to push past his timidness, resulting in him challenging the villains and obstacles that stand in his way, and becoming more bold in the process. He may be a cupcake of a human being, yes, and he is a nice guy, but his disability makes him a person who is NOT to be underestimated. He finds the courage to fight and to rescue Sherry, and he is willing to take the lives of the baddies who threaten his life or that of his girlfriend. And, his reward after going through all that mud is him being more brave, confident, and a little bit more reckless, but on the positive side, even if his quest did have repercussions. That's what makes Nathan such a likable main protagonist in any movie, and for those who are unable to feel pain and/or have isolated themselves from society before, he can easily be related to. 

Sherry's arc in the movie has her righting her wrongs and breaking free from her shameful and violent criminal past. The story arc of her character going from merely seducing her boyfriend to being a permanent girlfriend towards him may seem farfetched on paper, but it actually works out very well. Nathan fell in love with Sherry because she was the one who helped him take the first steps to appreciating his life in a new perspective and bringing the light into it. As it turns out, his faith in her was shattered after the reveal of her being the accomplice and sister of the movie's big baddie. Sherry's actions in the climax, by doing her Heel-Face turn, and backstabbing Simon, then, were fatalistic: to see if she is still worthy of Nathan's favor. By working together to stop Simon from killing both individuals, they were both finally able to change for the better and heal at last.    

For the big bad of the movie, Simon Greenly? Folks, THIS is how you do a villain who stands out in an action-comedy like this. Simon is arguably a irredeemable villain with no positive qualities to speak of. He serves as the source of all things bad that have happened in the film, and he stands as a formidable obstacle to the hero and the heroine in the movie. His presence in the movie darkens the movie's tone, with every scene in the film that he is in resulting in the film going from a bonkers action-packed laugh-out-loud romp to a straightforward, tense and terrifying thriller, and the movie becomes a full-blown, high-stakes and absolutely relentless roller coaster during the climax, when he gets the most screen time out of all of his scenes in the film. He loves to murder innocent victims and rob banks not just for the money, but for his own sick and twisted form of entertainment. And, what makes him even more of a intolerably despicable character is his solution towards his sister and accomplice, Sherry. What does he plan to do with her once she betrays him? Kill him just to emotionally harm Nathan and send him back to his sucky pre-relationship with Sherry days, and vice versa with Nathan to emotionally crush Sherry. He stands out in very, very, VERY sharp contrast to Nathan Caine's selfless and nice guy side, and he is a cautionary tale to Sherry, too - he is what she would have become if she never had a moral compass and developed any feelings and love towards Nathan to begin with. Alongside him enjoying his penchant for inflicting physical force with the intent to hurt, injure or kill others who get in his way, being responsible for the whole mess to begin with by robbing a bank, and the fact that he wasn't going to stop in his plan of trying to outright murder Nathan and Sherry - the former for ruining his plan of getting to Mexico and the latter for backstabbing him - and the fact that he was endangering both character's lives by attempting to kill them, and it's clear to see why he had to be put down like the rabid animal in a human's clothing that he really is. But, Nicholson did such a great job, and he pretty much had quite a blast playing the character, easily making him a Love to Hate villain a la the MCU incarnation of the High Evolutionary, and it makes his defeat not only cathartic, but also a lot more sweeter.   

The ending of the movie shows how much Nathan and Sherry have changed since they first met and their first scenes in the film. It's a bittersweet one, yes - it's because, while Nate and Sherry have both survived the movie's conflict, Nathan himself succeeding in his goal of rescuing his girlfriend, and with Simon getting his laser-guided payback onto him, Nathan and Sherry both had to face the consequences of their actions, resulting in Nathan getting 6 months house arrest and Sherry 18 months in jail. Still, it is only a temporary setback due to the fact that Nathan was able to visit Sherry, and he did it by timing it to nearing the end of her sentence as an inmate. I liked on how Nathan and Sherry were both underdogs and never had any magical superpowers (again, this movie was never going to have them due to it being grounded in reality) to overpower the villains and curb-stomp them easily. It took a lot of grit and courage for the two to earn the ending that they always wanted, and it's worth noting that both Nate and Sherry did not have a easy time in this film. And it's what makes their victory feel earned and not an instantly cheap free pass. It's this overcoming of obstacles for the two is what makes this movie have a decently-written plot, if not exceptional. What did the movie do to give a clear-cut "beginning-middle-end" structure to its narrative? The answer is this: Nathan and Sherry have completed their character development and ended their arcs as different and better individuals. At the end of the film, Nathan has learned to embracing life and taking risks, and Sherry has turned over a new leaf and breaking free from her time as a criminal accomplice.   

But in the end, was the ending cathartic, and would it lead to a potential sequel to see where Nathan and Sherry's relationship might go next? On one hand, it's a clear yes because it is a fitting and mostly happy end despite it being a bittersweet one due to the two surviving the movie's conflict, and with the big bad getting his just desserts. On the other hand, I don't think we might see a follow-up anytime soon, unless if it's announced to be in development, but on the other side of the coin, it works as a standalone story if no such sequel comes to fruition. But it's both Nate and Sherry's conditions at the very end of the movie that matters the most. What are Nate and Sherry's conditions? They're still alive, and continuing to maintain their relationship towards each other, with Nathan paying Sherry a visit when she's serving her sentence and nearing the end of it, and the fact that Nathan now has a girlfriend and is socializing in public out in more and eating solid food because of her and, in the end, becoming a more confident and different man, with him no longer using his disability as a crutch. And, for Sherry, she may have been a flawed person, but in the end, she did the right thing, and she stood up to her brother, turning her back on him, and devoting her life to safeguarding her boyfriend and helping out the police instead, and ends up being a better woman who has started fresh and changing her own life in a more positive and more responsible direction. Nate went from being a easily frightened, risk-averse, and lonely man, to learning to step out from his shell, to being a determined and brave action hero and surviving numerous injuries, and ends up saving his girlfriend, and now living a better life because of her. Sherry, too, went from merely seducing her boyfriend, to developing legitimate feelings for him, resulting in her being redeemed by love, resulting in her finally breaking free from her criminal ways and turning her back on her psychotic brother, and saving her boyfriend from evil's grasp, and ends being Nathan's forever lover and severed her chain to her bank-robbing accomplice past, even if she had to go to jail because of it. The two lovers saved each other, and they are now together forever with a better future, even with the possibility of them starting a new life together, maybe even getting married and having children on their own. Both Nathan and Sherry won the game of life.

And THAT is what both Nathan and Sherry deserved most of all, especially after all of the hell that the two went through. They deserved to be happy and free from their own troubles and their own pain. And it's this double dose of happiness and freedom from their own painful days and struggles that truly cements the movie's ending as a heartwarming and cathartic moment.      

I know that this movie might have not done so hot at the box office in spite of its $18 million budget, and I wish it would have done better financially while it was still in theaters, but  the positive side is that I still just can't get over how well-crafted and full of heart this movie truly is. The marketing and the loglines for the movie that are plastered all over most movie-focused websites and social media pages may have painted the movie as a straightforward, run-of-the-mill action/Black Comedy/thriller movie that runs on being purely comedic with a few dashes of suspense, but in reality, it's a much more complex and layered movie than that. It balances humor and bloody action perfectly, it brings a little-known congenital disability to the spotlight, and it emphasizes the growth and development of its two main leads as much as the action and the humor, and it's the growth of the two main leads that gives the movie much of its charm and heart, and it handles their stories and developments beautifully. In all, Novocaine is one of the movies that is enjoyable, if not Oscar-worthy a la Sinners, and it's worth giving a shot if you are able to stomach the gory and bloody scenes, and it's a good watch once you get past the grisly images, at least just once.