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Novocaine
Artisan // R // April 23, 2002
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Dvdempire]
BR> The Movie:
It wasn't very long into "Novocaine" when I began to not only find it familiar, but ponder the fact that the Coen Brothers have done this kind of noir situation better more than just once or twice. "Novocaine" attempts to be some sort of noir, but it never really sustains a strong tone, provides an interesting lead character or locks itself into one genre. The film revolves around Dr. Frank Sangster (Steve Martin), a fairly nice-guy dentist who is engaged to his hygienist (Laura Dern).
One day, Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter) comes into his office complaining of a toothache. In need of a root canal, she shows up for her next appointment at 7:30pm instead of 7:30am. The two have a fling in the dentist's chair and then he comes in next morning to find that there's a ton of narcotics missing from his office, not to mention a DEA agent in the waiting room wanting to make a routine inspection. If he doesn't find the drugs in 2 days, he's going to have his license taken away and be thrown in jail.
This is the point where the character spirals downwards; while this could have made for a fairly interesting thriller, little of it works. The prime failure is that Frank suposedly falls for Susan, but there's zero indication that the two have any chemistry whatsoever. Frank also has to contend with Susan's violent, loudmouth brother (Scott Caan) and the reappearance of his own loser brother (Elias Koteas).
Rather than having the characters spiral downwards, the movie creaks forward. There's even an actor (Kevin Bacon) following around the police - in one scene, they even let him question Martin's character. Instead of providing intelligent, surprising twists, the movie instead tries for ineffective shocks; its inability to decide what it is makes everything seem all the more flat. The fact that this all seems like it could have been cleared up earlier makes the rest of the film seem even less interesting. The supporting characters are hardly developed, while the leads don't have much more depth.
The performances aren't anything special, either. Caan, who showed he can be very funny in "Ocean's 11" is annoying, while Bonham Carter only presents a bland redux of her "Fight Club" character. Martin is particularly dissapointing, as he never really seems that interested in the proceedings.
The DVD
VIDEO: Artisan consistently provides respectable presentations, but their efforts remain one step below major studio releases. "Novocaine" is presented by the studio in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture remained fairly well-defined throughout; although the picture could look slightly soft at times, it never appeared terribly soft or hazy.
Grain proved to be an infrequent issue; it was present and slightly distracting towards the opening, but was only seen now-and-then throughout the rest of the feature. The print used wasn't quite clean, but it was close - aside from a few stray specks, the movie looked pretty fresh. Only a couple of slight traces of pixelation and edge enhancement were seen, but weren't terribly noticable.
Colors looked fairly warm and well-rendered throughout; the picture didn't have a terribly rich color palette, but colors still looked fine, nonetheless. A pretty decent effort.
SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was a little more active than I'd expected, but still really didn't impress. Surrounds were employed fairly well for the music and some infreqent sound effects, but most of the film's audio remained within the front speakers. Audio quality remained fine, as the score sounded quite crisp, while dialogue came through cleanly and clearly.
MENUS: As per usual, Artisan pulls out all the stops for the menus, complete with nice film-themed animation for the main menu and film-themed images as backgrounds for the sub-menus.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary by director David Atkins, who provides a mildly interesting discussion of the production of the film. While there are stretches that have the director focusing on too-minor details or talking about what's currently going on in the story, Atkins also provides some funny on-set stories and a strong amount of technical details.
Trailers: 2 Trailers for "Novocaine" and sneak peek trailers for "Van Wilder", "Rambo Box Set", "Twin Peaks: Season Box Set", "Good Advice" and "Dr. T and the Women".
Featurettes: The disc offers two featurettes; Bitten is a short exploration of the science of forensic dentistry and Getting the Shot is a pretty normal behind-the-scenes piece.
Also: 5 deleted scenes, music snippets, filmographies, production notes.
Final Thoughts: If you're a fan of this film, I'd recommend the DVD, but I personally wouldn't recommend the movie as either a purchase or rental for those who haven't seen it. Not funny or slightly entertaining, I thought "Novocaine" was a bore of a noir - or whatever it was trying to be. Go check out the Coen Brother's new-to-video/DVD "Man Who Wasn't There" instead.
It wasn't very long into "Novocaine" when I began to not only find it familiar, but ponder the fact that the Coen Brothers have done this kind of noir situation better more than just once or twice. "Novocaine" attempts to be some sort of noir, but it never really sustains a strong tone, provides an interesting lead character or locks itself into one genre. The film revolves around Dr. Frank Sangster (Steve Martin), a fairly nice-guy dentist who is engaged to his hygienist (Laura Dern).
One day, Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter) comes into his office complaining of a toothache. In need of a root canal, she shows up for her next appointment at 7:30pm instead of 7:30am. The two have a fling in the dentist's chair and then he comes in next morning to find that there's a ton of narcotics missing from his office, not to mention a DEA agent in the waiting room wanting to make a routine inspection. If he doesn't find the drugs in 2 days, he's going to have his license taken away and be thrown in jail.
This is the point where the character spirals downwards; while this could have made for a fairly interesting thriller, little of it works. The prime failure is that Frank suposedly falls for Susan, but there's zero indication that the two have any chemistry whatsoever. Frank also has to contend with Susan's violent, loudmouth brother (Scott Caan) and the reappearance of his own loser brother (Elias Koteas).
Rather than having the characters spiral downwards, the movie creaks forward. There's even an actor (Kevin Bacon) following around the police - in one scene, they even let him question Martin's character. Instead of providing intelligent, surprising twists, the movie instead tries for ineffective shocks; its inability to decide what it is makes everything seem all the more flat. The fact that this all seems like it could have been cleared up earlier makes the rest of the film seem even less interesting. The supporting characters are hardly developed, while the leads don't have much more depth.
The performances aren't anything special, either. Caan, who showed he can be very funny in "Ocean's 11" is annoying, while Bonham Carter only presents a bland redux of her "Fight Club" character. Martin is particularly dissapointing, as he never really seems that interested in the proceedings.
The DVD
VIDEO: Artisan consistently provides respectable presentations, but their efforts remain one step below major studio releases. "Novocaine" is presented by the studio in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture remained fairly well-defined throughout; although the picture could look slightly soft at times, it never appeared terribly soft or hazy.
Grain proved to be an infrequent issue; it was present and slightly distracting towards the opening, but was only seen now-and-then throughout the rest of the feature. The print used wasn't quite clean, but it was close - aside from a few stray specks, the movie looked pretty fresh. Only a couple of slight traces of pixelation and edge enhancement were seen, but weren't terribly noticable.
Colors looked fairly warm and well-rendered throughout; the picture didn't have a terribly rich color palette, but colors still looked fine, nonetheless. A pretty decent effort.
SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was a little more active than I'd expected, but still really didn't impress. Surrounds were employed fairly well for the music and some infreqent sound effects, but most of the film's audio remained within the front speakers. Audio quality remained fine, as the score sounded quite crisp, while dialogue came through cleanly and clearly.
MENUS: As per usual, Artisan pulls out all the stops for the menus, complete with nice film-themed animation for the main menu and film-themed images as backgrounds for the sub-menus.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary by director David Atkins, who provides a mildly interesting discussion of the production of the film. While there are stretches that have the director focusing on too-minor details or talking about what's currently going on in the story, Atkins also provides some funny on-set stories and a strong amount of technical details.
Trailers: 2 Trailers for "Novocaine" and sneak peek trailers for "Van Wilder", "Rambo Box Set", "Twin Peaks: Season Box Set", "Good Advice" and "Dr. T and the Women".
Featurettes: The disc offers two featurettes; Bitten is a short exploration of the science of forensic dentistry and Getting the Shot is a pretty normal behind-the-scenes piece.
Also: 5 deleted scenes, music snippets, filmographies, production notes.
Final Thoughts: If you're a fan of this film, I'd recommend the DVD, but I personally wouldn't recommend the movie as either a purchase or rental for those who haven't seen it. Not funny or slightly entertaining, I thought "Novocaine" was a bore of a noir - or whatever it was trying to be. Go check out the Coen Brother's new-to-video/DVD "Man Who Wasn't There" instead.
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