Click here to copy URL

Novocaine

2001

David Atkins

Chelcie Ross, Steve Martin, Laura Dern, Lynne Thigpen ...

5.0

706

Comedy. Thriller. Drama Dr. Frank Sangster is a straight-laced dentist who because of one innocent lie, finds his tidy, prosperous life transformed into a comic quagmire of illicit sex, illegal drugs and inexplicable murder in this brilliantly offbeat, bitingly comedic film!

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"A screwball film noir with a lot of medium laughs and a few great big ones"	POS
United States	Chris Kaltenbach Baltimore Sun	"'Novocaine' is neither funny enough to be a comedy, nor dark enough to be a true film noir. Like the drug of the title, it just kind of leaves you numb and anxious to taste the good stuff once again."	NEU
United States	Lou Lumenick New York Post	"Martin's most adventurous film in many years, may be next best thing to a quick shot of nitrous oxide."	POS
United States	Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer	"One moment it's farcical comedy, the next it's gruesome melodrama. The movie never finds the right tone."	NEU
United States	Rene Rodriguez Variety	"A funny and constantly surprising exercise in comic tension."	POS
United States	Mark Caro Chicago Tribune	"The absurd meets the violent meets the droll, and we just watch from the outside, never having been drawn in by anything resembling believable feelings or behavior."	NEU
United States	Dana Stevens The New York Times	"Nothing is particularly believable here, but there are still a few moments of silly, sinister fun."	NEU
United States	John Anderson The Wall Street Journal	"Martin is marvelous; through sheer charisma, he takes over certain scenes as if no one else is there."	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.