David Atkins
Novocaine

"Novocaine" is a film born from this new society, from the new way of understanding life. Work has become the driving force of our existence, and most of our actions are closely linked to employment. This results in a significant psychological impact that experts in the field have been exploring for some years now. David Atkins' film is an attempt (albeit unsuccessful) to show us the consequences of this reality through the eyes of Dr. Frank Sangster (Steve Martin), a successful dentist happily engaged to his assistant Jean (Laura Dern). His life is peaceful yet hectic because of his job. The portrayal that emerges is that of a character pleased with his work condition, well-off.

It's Susan (Helena Bonham Carter) who will disrupt Dr. Sangster's life. A figure driven by a desire for sex, alcohol, and drugs and the will to help her addict brother. These are the bases on which Atkins' feature film moves, who is known little from previous activities. A film balancing between drama and comedy (with decidedly noir tones). A hint of action here and there, with even the grotesque making an appearance. A film that starts quite well and maintains a good pace throughout its duration. However, despite Martin's good performance, the entire story appears weak, especially in the central part where our dentist finds himself constantly on the run from the police due to events that have somehow ensnared him. Moving further away from the dental office, ending up in the motel room where Susan is, Novocaine ends up becoming yet another film about sex and drugs, and even the trick of the "dead body" is not effective in salvaging the fortunes of the film.

Probably aware of the film's lack of positivity, Atkins attempts in the final half-hour to pull some noteworthy solutions out of the hat, but changing the addends doesn't change the result: Novocaine remains a pretentious and confusing film. The starting idea was good, as well as the incipit, which stood on the desire to show "modern" life halfway between drama and comedy. The evolution is instead a series of incoherent and quite predictable events. How did that saying go? He who has bread has no teeth and he who has teeth has no bread...