Novocaine should've been a decent 3-star action flick, the type of movie whose Swiss cheese plot and unremarkable characters fade from your memory over time until all you can recall is a standout action sequence or two. (That glass knuckles scene?? SO fun.)
But the dialogue is BAD. Catastrophically bad. ChatGPT-generated AI slop bad. So bad that I cannot believe real human beings typed out those words with their real human hands. I won’t subject you to any actual examples. You’re welcome.
All about the starry-eyed hope and the deep, deep hate that commingle in this great-ish country—from that opening shot of an iconic American symbol turned upside down (visual metaphor!!)…all the way to the closing shot of Act 2, in which a different iconic symbol is turned upside down (another visual metaphor!!!).
And so gorgeously shot. There are about 50 frames from this film that I’d hang on the wall in my living room.
Funny, quick, packed with smart visual metaphors.
P.S. I love Tilda Swinton so so much.
