Film Review: Nerve

With much of the world tuned in to Social Media and mobile apps, it was a matter of time before a movie was made about an app. Nerve is one such movie. More precisely, Nerve is one such novel, written by Jeanne Ryan, and the movie is based off it.

This movie has been compared to Unfriended for its focus on Social Media. However, unlike Unfriended, it's less about cyberbullying and more about how unpleasant people can be when
they're behind a veil of online anonymity.

Warning - mild spoilers ahead

There are a few decent twists in the tale, and let's leave it at that. Nothing particularly clever, but significant enough that revealing them here would ruin the plot.

The Premise

Nerve is a mobile game that promises to be "Truth or Dare, without the Truth". The game is centered around dares. Users of the app choose to be either Watchers or Players. Watchers pay a fee to well, watch the Players carry out dares within a time limit. Players accept online monetary transactions to carry out dares, and have to be filmed doing it. They lose if they give up, or fail to carry out the dare within the stipulated time limit. On a more sinister note, if any user attempts to contact the authorities and warn them about this app, they are punished.

Nerve cannot be shut down because there is no single server - every Watcher is a server unto themselves, and thus as long as even one Watcher is logged on, the game is online.

"Truth or Dare, without the Truth" turns out to be misleading - while the app does deal primarily in the "Dare" part, there's plenty of "Truth" involved as well. The app gathers personal information of the Players such as addresses, bank accounts and relatives, and uses it against them.

The frenetic tale revolves around a student named Vee who becomes a Player for the first time, and another Player known as "Ian", as they embark on an increasingly dangerous and outrageous series of dares orchestrated by the Watchers.

The Characters

Emma Roberts as Venus "Vee" Delmonico. Much has been said about Emma Roberts being too hot to play shy nerd Vee. Don't know about that, I think she did a pretty decent job, though her thick eyebrows were kind of distracting. The sight of her cavorting around in her underwear with "Ian" wasn't exactly repulsive, but "too hot" wasn't really the first thing that came to mind.

Dave Franco as "Ian", looking suave and oozing the kind of charm his older brother James is known for, he was good in the role. The awkward goofiness he exhibited in Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2, and even more pronounced in Unfinished Business, was absent. In one of the scenes where he and Vee clowned around on a carousel, this was quaintly reminiscent of his turn as Jack Wilder in Now You See Me.

Emily Meade as Sydney, Vee's trampy best bud who seems to really enjoy strutting around without her underwear. She played the role magnificently. The facial expressions, ranging from concern to jealousy to fear, to outright bitchiness - she nailed them all.

Miles Heizer as Tommy, Vee's friend, web tech geek and a cautious presence in her newfound recklessness, delivering rather trite truisms such as "we're using only ten percent of the web". Has a not-so-subtle crush on her, and his tech skills feature prominently throughout the movie.

Machine Gun Kelly as Ty, the tall scary-looking white dude who comes off as a total psycho Player. Really hammed it up and stole the show in the scenes he was in.

Samira Wiley as Azhar. Gorgeous, and cool as hell. One of the adult tech geeks in Miles's crew who eventually save the day. Maybe it's just me, but her vibe wasn't very techie.

Juliette Lewis as Nancy, Vee's mom - possibly the cast's most billable actress. Haven't seen her since Strange Days and Enough, and my, how she's aged. Still a dependable actress though, as she pulls off businesslike bedside manner as a nurse and frantic concern as Vee's mother with aplomb. Didn't have much to do otherwise.

Kimiko Glenn as Liv. There was something endearingly earnest about this Asian as she played one of Vee's friends in the group.

The Mood

Started out with a dull and mundane environment. As the action heated up and the thrills started, most of the story took place at night amid the bright lights of the city. It was dark and gritty in places, but not overly done.

What I liked

The atmosphere was refreshingly "normal" when required. Nothing glitzed up, no teen supermodels posing as students in the school. They even had chubby cheerleaders. Imagine that!

Even the techie scenes were tastefully done. No over-the-top special effects other than clever camera angles that make the viewer feel like they are the computer interacting with Vee, or the various mobile screens interacting with the Watchers.

Vee delivered an awesome monologue as she and Sydney had a confrontation. The intensity of that scene has to be seen to be believed.

What I didn't

Nerve got a little preachy at times, with Miles and Vee delivering lines (monologues in the latter's case) that were less awesome and more superfluous. I mean, we geddit already. Online anonymous trolls are evil. Don't give out your personal information on the web. Yadda yadda.

Can we get back to the movie please?

Conclusion

Nerve is a cautionary tale against putting too mch personal information online. Or, at least, it tries to be. As a thriller, thrill it certainly does. It's a charming low-budget production, and lots of fun.

My rating

8 / 10

Go watch this flick. I dare you.
T___T