SUBMITTED BY katystarlet

August 24, 2001 — AICN has some reviews from the sneak preview of Novocaine:

The movie was "Novocaine", and it is a dark comedy that stars Steve Martin as a dentist who appears to have the perfect life (money, professional success, beautiful fiancee, etc.), but is clearly unfulfilled. Laura Dern plays his perky and "anal" dental assistant and fiancee, and Helena Bonham Carter plays a sexy drifter scheming to get drugs. The rest of the cast is filled out by the great James Chisem (Something About Mary) as a detective, Scott Caan as a hothead drug dealer, and Elias Koteas as Martin's brother. It also includes a hilarious cameo by a prominent actor ( I won't spoil it).

Novocaine has a lot in common with The Whole Nine Yards in that they are both about unhappy dentists who get into a lot of trouble throughout the course of the movie. However, Novocaine is both darker and funnier, and has some nice twists. Steve Martin is great playing a guy who is completely trusting and amazed that anyone would wish him harm. Laura Dern is perfect as the overachieving and incredibly organized assistant, and Carter is good at playing a grungy, drug addict grifter.

The movie is directed by David Atkins, whom I had never heard of before. He has an interesting style - there are several scenes where he uses X-rays as a metaphor for seeing through people and exposing them for what they are. There is one scene involving pulling teeth that everyone in the theater turned away from, and another fight scene in the bar that's pretty violent, but other than that it's just a solid, fun, indie type movie. I hear it's not opening until October, but search it out, I think it will be worth your while. You can read more at: