Novocaine follows a mild-mannered San Diego bank assistant manager with a rare genetic condition that prevents him from feeling pain. After his coworker and new love interest is kidnapped during a violent bank robbery, he uses his condition to endure brutal punishment while chasing the Santa-suited robbers across the city in a series of gory, comedic action set pieces. The film blends romance, dark humor, and over-the-top violence around personal stakes and heroism with no political messaging or identity-driven themes.
Community feedback
Was our 13% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Novocaine.
Woke representation / casting
Native American actress plays the prominent love interest and a black actress plays a capable police officer in a mixed ensemble that fits the modern San Diego setting with no visible signaling or agenda in marketing or story framing.
22%
Woke political dialogue
No political, activist, or identity-focused dialogue appears in the story or reviews.
Production
0%
Identity-driven story themes
The narrative revolves around personal love, heroism, and using a medical condition for action-comedy payoffs with no race, gender, sexuality, or social-justice elements.
0%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Bank robbers serve as standard villains and police ultimately assist the hero; no modern activist framing of institutions, capitalism, masculinity, or cultural norms.
0%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Original story with no established characters or source material altered for ideological reasons.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No anti-woke or right-leaning complaints exist; public and critical response treats the film as straightforward entertainment.
0%
Creator track record context
Directors, writer, and most producers work in mainstream genre films and production with no documented activist, DEI, or identity-politics patterns in their careers or statements.
8%
Movie · 2019
After faking his death, a tech billionaire recruits a team of international operatives for a bold and bloody mission to take down a brutal dictator.
Movie · 2026
A dysfunctional couple head to a remote cabin to "reconnect", but each has secret intentions to kill the other.
Movie · 2024
When top hitman Joe Flood is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he decides to take matters into his own hands – by taking a hit out on himself.
Movie · 2020
Spenser, a former Boston patrolman who just got out from prison, teams up with Hawk, an aspiring fighter, to unravel the truth behind the death of two police officers.
Movie · 2023
Kevin Hart - playing a version of himself - is on a death-defying quest to become an action star. And with a little help from John Travolta, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Josh Hartnett -…
Movie · 2017
Steve Ford is a private detective in Venice Beach, Calif., who's good with the ladies, bad with the punches and wild about his dog Buddy.
Movie · 2023
Two elite soldiers must escort civilians through a gauntlet of gunfire and explosions.
Movie · 2022
An LA vampire hunter has a week to come up with the cash to pay for his kid's tuition and braces. Trying to make a living these days just might kill him.
