Novocaine (2025) | REVIEW

Jack Quaid mid-action in NOVOCAINE — PHOTO: Paramount Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen — Screenplay by Lars Jacobson.

Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s Novocaine follows Nathan Caine (played by Jack Quaid), an introverted assistant bank manager, who has the condition known as ‘congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis’ meaning that he doesn’t feel pain and temperature. This diagnosis means that he lives a life defined by his own attempts at protecting himself, by, among other things, avoiding solid foods as he could conceivably bite off his own tongue due to his issues with the sense of feeling. However, one day he runs into someone who could change his life. That person is Sherry (played by Amber Midthunder), an extroverted co-worker, who he is immediately smitten by. They eventually establish a connection, but, right as he is finally starting to discover happiness in his life, she is kidnapped and taken as hostage during a bank robbery. Desperate to save her, he follows in pursuit and is willing to put his body through hell to get her back.

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REVIEW: Veep – Season Seven (2019)

Release Poster – HBO

The following is a review of the seventh and final season of HBO’s Veep.

For seven seasons, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been the face of the state of American political satire. She has dominated awards ceremonies, cussed out her supporting cast more times than Jesse Pinkman said “Bitch!” on Breaking Bad, and given outstanding performances again and again. But now her time as Selina Meyer is over. She has left an already long-standing satirical legacy that is much more significant than her character’s political legacy if the final shot of Veep is to be believed.

Though Veep changed showrunner over the course of its run, it was almost always a step ahead of the political state of America, even as America seemed insistent on nominating someone for president who would be just as vicious and disinterested as Selina Meyer. As showrunner David Mandel once wrote in a column for The Hollywood Reporter: “there’s nobody more Trumpy than Selina. […] Trump, in a weird way, is sort of doing us. We’re not doing him.” Continue reading “REVIEW: Veep – Season Seven (2019)”