Novocaine (2001)

Director: David Atkins

Writers: Paul Felopulos, David Atkins

Composer: Steve Bartek

Starring:  Steve Martin, Laura Dern, Lynne Thigpen, Hlena bonham Carter, Scott Caan, Elias Koteas, Keith David, Kevin Bacon

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Crime Is Not Only Done By Criminals.

Plot: A dentist finds himself a murder suspect after a sexy patient seduces him into prescribing her drugs.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

I haven't seen this in ages and I'm glad it's held up. This is a nice, tight and sometimes darkly funny crime thriller.  It's nice seeing Steve Martin outside of the comedy pictures.  He's fun but in a serious way.  Having seen him in a lot of movies there's some baggage that he brings that's purely that of the audience.  Because he's Steve Martin you almost automatically like him and that can help or hurt an actor.  The supporting cast is great.  Hell, there's no weak link in the picture.  The story has a lot going on.  I would suggest not thinking about anything and let the film take you for a ride.  Do you like incest?  I thought you did.  Kevin Bacon has an uncredited role of an actor researching the role of a detective and he's hilarious.  I love that guy.  The Artisan DVD has lots of extras.  You get a short piece on forensic dentistry (9 minutes), a 9 minute fluff piece on the making of the film, 5 deleted scenes, 6 excerpts from the soundtrack (including 2 by Danny Elfman and 2 from Steve Bartek, Elman's bandmate in Oingo Boingo who also provided the score), the non-anamorphic widescreen red band (and green band) trailers for the film, and trailers for 5 other movies, TV show and DVD box set, plus the director's commentary for the film.  I really enjoy this film and if any of this sounds like your bag, it's an easy purchase for under five bucks.  I picked it up at Big Lots a couple of years ago for $2 and it was a no brainer having already seen the film at that point.