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Jack Quaid Is Perfect for the Comic Slaughterfest of Novocaine

This nihilistic action comedy finds a charmingly convenient way to justify its unchecked violence and gore.

It’s a riff on superhero stories, but it’s been thought up with a whiff of dopey plausibility: The film’s protagonist, Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid), suffers from something called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA), which is a real condition that probably doesn’t work quite as conveniently as it does here. Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen take this dumb-clever, fake-movie-science idea and run with it as hard and as fast as they can in one straight direction, using Nate’s condition as an excuse for pure, unchecked mayhem. Led by a snarling sociopath named Simon (Ray Nicholson, doing dad Jack proud with his demonic smile), they shoot the manager, beat Nate to a pulp, and machine-gun the cops Heat-style.

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