Betty Gabriel – We Are Movie Geeks

NOVOCAINE (2025) – Review

Last month, we got the first of the 2025 movie superheroes to arrive as the new Captain America threw his shield down the hallway of the multiplex (and hopefully “konked” the Red Hulk). Now we’ve got a few weeks until the second “wave” washes up with those THUNDERBOLTS, so what will tide the fans over till then, eh? How about a mild-mannered guy who doesn’t don spandex, fly, or even punch holes in concrete walls? Yes, he doesn’t have a real “super power,” but he’s got a lil’ “something special” that sets him apart from us. You may just figure out “his deal” by his nickname, which also happens to be the title of this new (not from a graphic novel or video game) action comedy thriller, so let’s give NOVOCAINE a shot (sorry, bad dental pun).

This dude’s actual name is Nathan “Nate” Caine (Jack Quaid), a “mild-mannered” thirty-something who is the assistant manager at a San Diego bank. We first meet him at the start of his work day at his modest apartment. Hmm, why do tennis ball covers adorn the door knobs and the edges of his tables (coffee and kitchen)? That’s something to ponder as he enjoys a banana and kale shake right out of the blender for breakfast. He’s at the bank early for a pre-Christmas “pep” talk from his boss. The only person who’s late is Nate’s unrequited “work crush,” a fetching new teller named Sherry (Amber Midthunder). Later, they encounter each other in the break room as she accidently bumps into him as he’s pouring very hot coffee into a mug filled with ice cubes (weird). Nate doesnt yell in agony as the liquid scalds his hands. Sherry feels so bad that she invites him to Lunch as an apology. At her favorite diner, she orders her usual cherry pie while Nate gets a vanilla milkshake. After many attempts to offer him a bite of her pie, Nate confesses to his “gift”. He has a medical condition that doesn’t allow him to feel pain. And now it’s only liquids, so he won’t somehow bite off his tongue (eww). And his watch alarm goes off every three hours to remind him to empty his bladder (again, eww). This doesn’t disgust Sherry; maybe it intrigues her, So they decide to meet later for drinks. Before that, Nate drops by his home for a quick online game while on the phone to his only pal, though they’ve never met in person, video game opponent Roscoe (Jacob Batalon). At the bar, Nate runs into an old school mate who reveals his middle school nickname, “Novocaine”. And yet Sherry goes home with Nate, and, well; let’s say he can feel pleasure. Things don’t get “weird” at work the next day until three heavily armed Santas waltz in and rob the place. They take Sherry hostage and force Nate to open the vault. The police arrive, but the trio has superior firepower and drives away in two vehicles. Nate is sure that they’ll murder Sherry unless he takes action by swiping the gun and car of the wounded cops. Can he get to her in time? And can his “power” somehow give him the advantage over the dangerous heist crew?

Let’s get this out of the way: the film has not one but two “nepo-babies” in its cast. One is the lead, Mr. Quaid, though he’s already made a name for himself in several films and TV shows before his big breakout role in Amazon Prime’s streaming hit “The Boys”, which happens to deal with enhanced folks (though he’s not one). Well, the role of Nate is the showcase that could propel him into “leading man” territory. And that’s great because Quaid is quite engaging here as a “nice guy” who is finally breaking free of the protective cocoon he’s wrapped around his body (and especially his heart). He conveys the soaring joy of new love and a chance for freedom, which fuels his surprising heroism. But Quaid also has a great knack for slapstick as he contorts himself to evade the thugs, much like the silent film “clowns”, before being propelled by the furious fists that do connect. In one sequence, he really shines as he feigns agony during torture to “buy some time”. His action “dancing” is superb, but he’s tenuous and tender with Ms. Midthunder (so great in the “should’ve-been-in-theatres” PREDATOR prequel PREY). She’s fun and flirty, as she interacts with this “odd duck” over pie and drinks even “special shots”). The two have a sweet chemistry in their “getting to know you” exchanges as Shirley finds Nate’s quirkyness attractive. But we’ve got to have the baddies, who are led by the other “NB”, Ray Nicholson, son of Jack, who flashes that demented grin as he unleashes all manner of mayhem on law enforcement and the determined Nate. Luckily, Nate gets some great back-up, just like Holland’s Spidey, from the funny Batalon, whose Roscoe “pumps us his persona” while being in a panic over his probable ties to Nate’s somewhat illegal pursuits. Which also raises the interest of two veteran cops, who are always a few steps behind, played by Betty Gabriel, who may be the “good cop” as she’s often sympathetic (while tracing a call from Nate), and Matt Walsh, not the “bad cop” but rather a really exhausted one, who only wants to wrap theings up and do Christmas with the “fam”.

This bit of high concept chaos was helmed by the “tag team” directing duo of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, who add lots of visual flourish to Lars Jacobson’s script. It’s an interesting twist on superhero tropes, though we can often feel its legacy, with Nate as a kid brother to Stanley Ipkess of THE MASK (he’s shy and smitten, too), mixed with DARKMAN and KICK-ASS, both without pain receptors. Some have made comparisons to Marvel’s THE WOLVERINE, though he’s got that self-healing mutant ability. Nate must constantly “self-repair” with bandages, ointments, “superglue,” and even staples. And then the loss of blood drains him so much that he needs a “jolt” from an EpiPen (much like Spinach for the OG superhero POPEYE). And that’s a big problem with the film as Berk and Olsen, go overboard with the painful slashing and stabbing, sadistically zooming in on Nate’s oozing injuries until the viewer is almost numb to each new bit of practical effect gore. It’s not helped by several “leaps of logic” (a “deep-fried” pistol still works) that get to pile up during the film’s tring 110-minute length, which affords it the opportunity to keep piling on endings and final showdowns (he’s down and…he’s up). Mind you, there’s a lot of charm in that engaging tender romance of Shirley and Nate, but it’s tossed aside for double and triple-crosses and squirm-inducing scenes of “emergency room” nightmares. Action fans will get their “John Wick-lite” fixes, and Quaid’s stunned reaction shots are pretty amusing, but the mayhem tends to get monotonous, making most moviegoers feel as though their keisters somehow got an extra-strong dose of NOVOCAINE.

2 Out of 4

NOVOCAINE is now playing in theatres everywhere

Jack Quaid Plays A Superhero In First Look At NOVOCAINE

Paramount Pictures has dropped the first trailer for the upcoming movie NOVOCAINE.

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.

Think SPIDERMAN meets UNBREAKABLE meets THE BOYS. Opening in the theaters on March 14, NOVOCAINE is directed by Dan Berk & Robert Olsen, who previously wrote and directed the science fiction horror film SIGNIFICANT OTHER as well as 2019’s SXSW hit VILLIANS.

UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB – Review

Okay, so last Friday was the thirteenth, but that doesn’t stop the studios from releasing a new horror/thriller into the blockbuster-heavy Summer movie marketplace. Well the film itself is new, but it’s a follow-up to a modest hit from way back in 2015. So, is this set in a creepy old castle, or in a decaying and crumbling moldy mansion? No, those settings are passe and a tad tame for modern scary stories and their fans. The really terrifying backdrops aren’t “Camp Crystal Lake” or even the “House on Haunted Hill”. Here’s a hint: you’re there at this moment. Of course, the new hang-out for goons and monsters is the internet. It’s not a huge stretch to think of a web portal as a long hallway leading to a dungeon with tabs and ads popping up like zombies and ghouls. In this sequel (in name only), the forces of evil are streaming (and screaming) through your router in UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB.

Actually the whole story is told on the screen of a laptop. First we see an unseen user trying to access the laptop by making several password guesses. After a fairly short time, he’s in. Soon a video screen tab pops to reveal the person at the keyboard, Matais (Colin Woodell). He makes a Skype call to his hearing-impaired girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras). He’s eager to show her the voice to type chat program he’s rigged up (she has trouble reading his lips and he washed out at learning sign language) with this great laptop he bought on Craigslist. When the program stalls, frustrating Amaya, she starts to click out, but Matais reminds her that it’s game night via video chat with their old college buddies. Suddenly the small video screens begin popping up. From England there’s the bespectacled hunk Damon (Andrew Lees). Back in the states, there’s the conspiracy theory motormouth Aj (Connor Del Rio). Music mixologist Dj Lexx (Savira Windyani) chimes in. Finally the final tab contains the newly engaged couple of Serena (Rebecca Rittenhouse) and Nari (Betty Gabriel). As they begin playing “Cards Against Humanity”, Matias continues to try and get a response from Amaya, but he’s also curious about the laptop’s former owner. He’s still able to access the Facebook account of “Norah”. Once he logs on, Matias is bombarded by urgent messages from woman around the globe. Then the more threatening messages begin. Seems that Matais is not quite telling the truth about his new acquisition, which soon draws him along with all his online pals into a shadowy world of Bitcoin-base butchery and vile video voyeurs.

Well kudos to the producers for at least footing the bill so that the real world apps aren’t replaced by distracting fictional brands like “Facegroup” or “Skyview”. This does help to add a sense of reality to many of the fantastical goings-on. As for my “sequel” comment, this has nothing to do with the events and characters of the 2015 original. There are no vengeful ghosts going after cyber-bullies. The one thing in common is that everything we see is on the desktop screen, so the “Unfriended” refers to the story-telling method and setting rather than a continuing cast of characters and locales. Screenwriter Stephen Susco in his feature film directing debut ably amps up the tension, juggling the myriad of popping tabs and video screens (which get just enough of the action), while fiddling with sound (no real score other than some current top 40-style tunes) to hammer the shocks. Unfortunately the in your face tabs, flickering arrows, and spinning color wheels get very repetitive and claustrophobic. We hope for a “break-out” from the tech tube that never occurs. Still, some of the actors are able to shine, making them more that thriller type “cannon fodder”. There’s a nice cozy chemistry between Rittenhouse and Gabriel (in her second Blum House flick after her powerful work in GET OUT), plus Del Rio is a a loopy and oh so smug “s*%#-stirrer”. And Woodell is all sweaty panic as the flawed hero. Still, it’s tough to really get to know them in the split/screen “real time’ constraints of this extremely downbeat, nearly hopeless tale of cyber-cruelty and crime. The baddies really seem to be able to do anything technically (even making themselves into scratchy specters on any monitor) and are literally everywhere at once. Perhaps the next in this “series” will delve more into the inner workings of these underground overlords. As for this one, I can’t hit the like icon for UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB, though I’ll not click the brown, “swirly-headed’ guy either.

1.5 out of 5

GET OUT – Review

The first few months of the year seem to be prime territory for the studios to unleash new horror flicks. Perhaps the thinking is to get out of the way of most of the action blockbusters of the Spring/Summer and steer clear of those serious “message” prestige films near the end of the year. Well, maybe this “chiller” could be close to the later category. It’s got lotsa’ scares and some not-so-subtle bits of social commentary, a message horror flick. But it’s really not something new to ‘sinister cinema”. Many interpret the vampire legend as a commentary on female sexuality while others see zombie stories as metaphors for the struggle in the class system (the walking dead as the lower classes rising up to consume…). Perhaps the most famous example of this “mixing” is 1956’s iconic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (and its three remakes), which some interpret as an attack (or is it an endorsement?) of that era’s anti-communist paranoia. Other recent genre films like IT FOLLOWS and THE WITCH have these extra layers. But this new release blends the frights with a “take” on race relations. maybe more so than those 1990’s gems CANDYMAN and TALES FROM THE HOOD. And it’s the feature film directing debut of Jordan Peele, yes one half of that celebrated comedy duo. I’m sure he hopes you’ll go out and see GET OUT.

After a truly spooky abduction scene opens the film, we’re introduced to the story’s main focus: professional gallery photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya). He’s got a pretty great life in the city sharing a place with his gorgeous girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). But on this day he’s a bit nervous since he’ll soon be meeting her folks for the first time. It’s a tense time for any couple, but the “race thing” worries him. Has she told her folks that he’s black? Rose insists that they’ll be fine (“My dad will tell you he would’ve voted for Obama a third time”). After leaving their pooch with his pal, TSA agent Rod (LilRel Howery) they hit the road. Then the road “hits back” when a charging deer streaks past them (causing some damage, but they proceed). When they arrive at the lush Armitage home, tucked away far from civilization, the first person they spot is the beefy, reserved groundskeeper Walter (Marcus Henderson). The front door flings upon as Chris and Rose park the dinged-up car. It’s Papa Dean (Bradley Whitford), a renown surgeon, and Mamma Missy (Catherine Keener), a successful psychiatrist. Dean grabs Chris in a warm embrace (“We’re huggers!”) and takes them into the house.

That night they’re joined by Rose’s vaguely confrontational kid brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones). Over dinner, she’s reminded that a big family gathering will take place over the weekend. Chris is rattled by this and by the odd, passive (almost from another earlier era) behavior of the black housekeeper Georgina (Betty Gabriel). More strange sh…er..stuff.. occurs overnight when Chris is almost run down by the charging Walter (doing his exercises), then has a weird encounter with Missy in the dining room (did she put him in a hypnotic trance?). More bizarre awkward encounters happen the next day at the big Armitage family get-together. Chris meets a blind gallery owner, Jim (Stephen Root), who’s a fan of his work. Then he meets another “brother”, a man around his age married to an Armitage matron nearly 30 years older. But he acts and dresses like a man in his sixties. Then when Chris snaps a cell phone pic of him (with a flash bulb), the man (Lakeith Stanfield) lurches toward him and yells, “Get Out!!”. Chris agrees, but is it too late for the couple to escape?

Kayuuya delivers a great nuanced, subtle performance as the “stranger in a strange land”, a terrific take on the horror hero determined not to be a victim. Chris rises to the occasion, becoming pro-active when he’s plunging into this “bizzarro-land”. But we also see his vulnerable side when forced to confront the horrors of the past by the horrors of the now. We’re on his side every step of the way. Williams is quite the dream girl, the stabilizing force during this strange trip. But she’s conflicted, trying to support Chris while staying loyal to the family. We’re curious about her real allegiance. Bradford has a gregarious clumsy charm as the patriarch, seeming too eager to become Chris’s buddy, a surrogate daddy even as he awkwardly calls him “my man”. As the matriarch, Keener goes in nearly an opposite direction, her Missy is an intellectual, a tad reserved and frosty as she coolly observes every interaction. We get that this “iron lady” really runs the “show”, especially when she must deal with Jones as her “loose cannon” son. Jeremy appears to really enjoy shaking up this “picture perfect” home, coming off as a passive aggressive variation of Christopher Walken as Annie Hall’s twisted brother. As creepy as he is, ole Jere’ is nothing compared to “the help”. Henderson is all slow quiet menace as the lumbering Walter, while Gabriel, as the nearly always smiling Georgina, makes her the stuff of nightmares. Her scenes with Chris as she unravels are riveting and unnerving. We’re on the edge of our seats as we wonder when she’ll eventually snap. She makes us relish the story’s energetic comedy relief, the scene-stealing Howery as Chris’s best pal and confidant. The phone calls that convince him that things are “hinky” provide huge laughs as his Rod becomes an “audience surrogate”. He has no filter and says the things we feel we’d say (a TSA agent hero, not a bumbling doofus!). The only problem is that the audience laughter nearly drowns out his great line delivery.

The very talented Mr. Peele makes a spectacular debut as feature director and writer, with no platoon of story and screenplay aides. Many have tried to describe this work via other films, calling it a modern mix of MEET THE PARENTS, GUESS WHO”S COMING TO DINNER, and THE STEPFORD WIVES, but that can’t really capture its unique vision and originality. We’re expecting a comedy from this vet of TV and improv, and, as I mentioned, the Howery character is hysterical, but the strong dramatic tone and striking visuals are a wonder. Peele’s restrained use of special effects make the sequences inside Chris’s head very powerful. He’s endlessly, slowly plunging into an overwhelming pitch black chasm while the window through his eyes slowly blurs and darkens (great use of his point of view), showing his helplessness. He’s fighting back to little effect. Plus there’s the overall atmosphere orchestrated by Peele. Chris and Rose aren’t just out of the city, they’ve left sanity behind. From the deer encounter, through the welcoming, and particularly the family “gathering”, a sense of uneasy dread oozes from every frame. Then Peele throws us a curve by delivering a nail-biting action-packed finale that will have audiences cheering, despite the underlying bits of parody and satire (unlike the recent CURE FOR WELLNESS, Peele knows when to end the story). On so many levels, Jordan Peele’s “message monster movie”, GET OUT, is outstanding.

4 Out of 5

Frank Grillo Stars In THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR Trailer; First Poster And Images Land

In his 2014 review of THE PURGE: ANARCHY, Michael Haffner wrote the exciting sequel “delivers suspense and action from start to finish.” He added he was “curious and very much excited to see what next year’s annual Purge has to offer.”

Fans will have the chance to see over the July 4th holiday when Universal Pictures’ THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR reveals the next terrifying chapter that occurs over 12 hours of annual lawlessness sanctioned by the New Founders of America to keep this country great.

It’s been two years since Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) stopped himself from a regrettable act of revenge on Purge Night. Now serving as head of security for Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), his mission is to protect her in a run for president and survive the annual ritual that targets the poor and innocent. But when a betrayal forces them onto the streets of D.C. on the one night when no help is available, they must stay alive until dawn…or both be sacrificed for their sins against the state.

Once again returning to collaborate with franchise creator James DeMonaco on The Purge: Election Year are the series’ producers: Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum (Insidious and Ouija series, The Visit), Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ouija series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and writer/director DeMonaco’s longtime production partner, Sébastien K. Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13, Four Lovers).

The hit franchise electrified the culture and earned $200 million at the worldwide box office.

THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR opens in theaters on July 1.

Visit the official site: www.thepurgeelectionyear.com