With its young cast and heavy focus on social media and internet culture, Nerve is undoubtedly a millennial’s movie. The premise, centered on a mobile app whose users record themselves performing dares for money, requires some suspension of disbelief but feels very relevant in today’s age of YouTube / Instagram / Vine / Twitch fame. Overall, this adaptation of Jeanne Ryan’s novel is engaging enough to survive a descent into absurdity during its climax. Despite its flaws, the film is never boring throughout its lean 96 minutes, aided by an equally energetic score by Rob Simonsen and EDM / pop soundtrack.
Emma Roberts and Dave Franco do a decent job. Vee is a shy high school senior who decides it’s finally time to break out of her shell by becoming a Nerve player, which eventually leads her to team up with fellow newbie Ian on dares proposed by “watchers.” As the pair’s success grows, the dares get crazier and more lucrative. However, Ian may be a lot more involved in the game than he’s letting on, and Vee finds out that the community doesn’t issue the warning “snitches get stitches” lightly. Roberts is easy to root for and Franco plays the mysterious bad boy well.
Nerve‘s greatest strength is the immersive, if not always plausible portrayal of the title app. We see plenty of examples of dares by players, as well as watcher reactions that will be humorously familiar to anyone who’s scrolled through online comments in real life. In another nice touch, player usernames acting as location indicators are superimposed onto various shots of New York City’s skyline. Those with a fear of heights are advised to turn away during a standout POV sequence featuring a character traversing a ladder in between apartments several stories up, along with another on a construction crane way higher.
Nerve veers into thriller territory in its third act, a misstep that raises many questions of plausibility on a technical level. This is made worse by the script’s insistence on wrapping things up too neatly and quickly. Though not a deal-breaker, the movie concludes on a much less compelling note compared to its first two thirds.
Its target audience skews young, but on a broader scale Nerve effectively shows the perils of seeking fame, and how mob mentality and anonymity can bring out the worst in people. The premise can certainly bring up questions of self-reflection. What if something similar surfaced in real life? Would you be a player or a watcher? Would you do it for the money or fame? And how far would you be willing to go? Featuring likable leads and a fun, kinetic pace, Nerve manages to be more entertaining than several blockbusters this year at a fraction of the budget.
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