What if John Wick weren’t trained as an assassin but also couldn’t feel pain? Well, essentially, he’d be Jack Quaid’s Nathan Caine, the appealing protagonist of “Novocaine,” an action-comedy romp

Quaid's leading role in Novocaine feels like a natural continuation of these genre-bent everymen. He plays Nathan Caine, a mild-mannered assistant bank manager who has congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), a genetic disorder that impacts his nervous system to the point that he can't feel pain or temperature.

Only a high-concept Hollywood screenwriter could take a disorder that feels no pain and make it the defining feature for a mild-mannered vigilante.