How is it that my two favorite movies of the year so far both star Jack Quaid?
Genre: Action
Premise: (from IMDB) 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.
About: Do not sleep on Jack Quaid, people. This dude understands material. He knows what a good script is. First, Companion. And now this. This is a great script to study for any spec screenwriters. This is how you do it. A low-budget action movie. This is exactly what I was talking about in my post this Friday – where Hollywood is headed. Novocaine did not light the box office on fire. But it deserves your attention on streaming. So go watch it! In fact, watch it before reading this review, preferably without watching the trailer either. The movie evolves in a really fun way.
Writer: Lars Jacobson
Details: 110 minutes
Having exhausted all movie options, I reluctantly rented Novacaine last night and ended up absolutely loving it. What’s interesting about this movie is that, one the years, I’ve read about a dozen screenplays centering around someone who isn’t able to feel pain.
That’s the thing with the spec world. Everybody pretty much as the same ideas. So you need to be able to find an angle that idea that separates you from the pack. What complicates this is that, sometimes, one of these scripts gets through solely because a great producer shoved it through and somehow got it made. That’s why sometimes bad versions of these common ideas become movies.
But in the case of Novocaine, the opposite happened. Someone finally wrote a great version of this idea. Actually, let me rephrase that. They executed the hell out of this idea. I don’t think anyone could’ve written a better version of a “dude feels no pain” movie. I honestly don’t. The writing is so sharp and seasoned here, that I was constantly impressed. I’ll give you a couple of examples of what I mean, but first let me summarize the plot for you.
By the way, I am going to be getting into spoilers because some of the teachable moments here include spoilers.
Nick, a loner assistant bank manager, has a rare condition that prohibits him from feeling pain. This means he stays away from all social interactions, save for his online gaming escapades.
One day, a beautiful young teller named Sherry starts working at the bank. Nick is obsessed with her but too afraid to ask her out. But one day, the two bump into each other in the break room, sparks fly, and she asks him to lunch.
Lunch turns into a date, date turns into a sleepover, and all of a sudden Nick has his first girlfriend ever. He’s in love. But the very next day at work, three Santas come in with guns (it’s the day before Christmas) to rob the place. They kill the bank manager, and as soon as they figure out that Nick loves Sherry, threaten to kill her unless he opens the safe. Nick gives up the combination, they level him to the ground, and take Sherry with them as a hostage for the pursuing cops.
When Nick wakes up, he’s determined to save Sherry. He’s shocked to find all the cops outside dead. These robbers are no joke. He then steals a cop car and begins his investigation into where these guys are going so he can get there and rescue Sherry.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW
The first moment that came where I knew this writing was at another level was the big twist. Sherry was working with the bank robbers all along. She played Nate.
I was SHOCKED by this twist. I had NO IDEA it was coming. And you guys know how long I’ve been doing this. I read a billion scripts. I can always sniff out a twist a mile away. So, I had to stop and evaluate how I missed this one so badly.
Here’s why it happened. Because the writer fully committed to the love story in the first act. There’s this really deep intense moment where the two of them are at Nate’s place and they’re taking their clothes off. For Nick, his secret is that, under his clothes, he’s self-tattooed almost his entire body. And then for Sherry, when she takes her shirt off, we see all these cuts on her. It’s a very vulnerable moment, and we can tell that it’s really hard for Sherry to share this part of herself. She doesn’t usually tell people this. We’re convinced this is deep love at this point.
In a typical script where you’re going to later reveal that that girl was playing our protagonist the whole time, the writer wouldn’t have written this scene. They want it to make sense, later, when Sherry turns on Jack. They would’ve thought there was too much closeness here to get away with that twist. But that closeness is exactly why I was fooled.
As screenwriters, we sometimes get lost in the puzzles we create, thinking too far up the line before we’ve put the puzzle together. Good writers write for the moment. They try to create the most powerful present moment and don’t overthink things to make sure that, later on, it’s all going to fit. Because if the writer would’ve made Sherry a little less committed in the moment, I would’ve seen that twist coming 30 pages early.
The second moment where I knew the writing was great occurred not long after that twist. As we know, movies like this require a lot of urgency. Initially, Novocaine’s urgency is obvious. The bad guys have the girl. She’s disposable. It’s only a matter of time before they kill her. So Nate has to find out where she’s being kept and get to her fast.
But then, we get the big twist. Sherry was working with the bank robbers all along. She played Nate. Note how as soon as this reveal is made, THERE IS NO MORE URGENCY IN THE MOVIE. Doesn’t matter how fast Nate gets there. She’s working with the bank robbers so she’s going to be safe.
At the time this happened, I thought to myself, “Ooh, the writers are in trouble now. How are they going to adjust for this?” And then, we get one of the best set pieces in the script. Nate goes to the house of one of the bank robbers (to try and find out where their workplace is) but the whole house is boobytrapped. He gets his leg snagged in a ceiling rope contraption and finds himself hanging upside down.
So he calls his only friend and begs him to come cut him down. The friend says he’ll be there in ten minutes. Now, before I even get to the lesson here, there’s ANOTHER screenwriting tip to come out of this. 90% of screenwriters would’ve cut to the friend showing up and helping him down.
But good screenwriters ALWAYS MAKE BAD SITUATIONS WORSE. So, what happens right after Nate calls his friend? One second later, Nate hears the front door open. It’s one of the other bank robbers. That’s good screenwriting! Never let your foot off the gas. Always make things more difficult. Even if you’re not sure how you’re going to get your hero out of it.
But back to my point. As soon as Nick gets off the phone, he sets his watch timer to 10 minutes, in anticipation of his friend coming (by the way, if anybody thinks this is strange, Nick uses his watch timer constantly throughout the movie – it’s not random). In other words, THIS PROVED TO ME that the WRITER KNEW he lost his urgency once he revealed that Sherry was a bad guy. Therefore he knew he had to add urgency somewhere else. So he creates this entire set piece around urgency! Nick has to convince this bank robber not to kill him before his friend shows up (in ten minutes).
That’s clever stuff.
And the script is filled with good screenwriting. Nick is NEVER helped by the screenwriter ever. He always makes it hard for Nick. This is one of the best screenplays I’ve read about a normal guy (somebody without black ops or military training) going up against much stronger bad guys. The writer never cheats regarding who Nick is. Also, I always tell you guys, LEAN INTO WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT YOUR CONCEPT. What’s unique in this concept is a guy who can’t feel pain. There are literally 75 different moments in this script built around the fact that Nick can’t feel pain.
The only weak part of the script is the fact that cops had been killed and there were only 2 cops chasing Nick around the whole time. But EVEN THEN the writer didn’t ignore that. He tried to explain it by saying it was Christmas and they were short-staffed.
I love movies like this because they show what the power of a good script can accomplish. It will get a movie made. And a good one at that! Highly recommend this one.
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the stream
[x] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Commit to the emotional beats of your screenplay even if you’re writing in the action or thriller genres. This movie DOES NOT WORK if that love story isn’t perfectly set up in the first act. We wouldn’t give a shit whether Nate saved Sherry or not.
