Industrious high school senior Vee (Emma Roberts) is tired of living life on the sidelines. Pressured by friends to join the popular online game Nerve, Vee teams up with a sly and charming competitor (Dave Franco) for just one dare in what seems like harmless fun. But as Vee is caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition, the game takes a sinister turn with increasingly dangerous acts, leading Vee into a high-stakes finale that will determine her entire future.
The film presents a game, set in a future not too distant from now. It takes an alluring voyeuristic element and fuses it with our current obsession with social media and ratings. Nerve is an underground app. Its users opt to subscribe and either “watch” or “play” and earn money. The players are given tasks that they must carry out and record on their phones so they can be shared with the watchers. It starts with challenges that are more embarrassing than anything else, like singing in public or kissing a stranger, but as the players progress the challenges get more dangerous, with financial rewards to match. As with any game or sport, the watchers latch on to favorites and the scoreboard and personalities of the players form a core part of the experience.
It’s an intriguing concept, and one that is executed ably. You’re given just enough information to understand the game. The shadowy elements of control and the dark web are glossed over, forsaking more interesting elements and world building in favor of more derivative themes of teen drama. Friction between friends, one-upmanship, jealousy, coming out of your shell, as well as critiques of online identity and the actions of faceless masses online are explored. These ideas are familiar to directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman from their previous effort Catfish back in 2010. These more infantile topics circle around Vee and Ian who, thankfully, through the great work of Roberts and Franco, carve out a nice niche within the film for a more genuine relationship thanks to their charm and chemistry.
While the tech aspects of Nerve are well done, it’s these dramatic elements that are somewhat lacking. Circling back to themes of childhood or playground misdeeds, they imbue the film with more of a “young adult” appeal than that of a darker tech-thriller, with that latter aspect being less explored that it could have been. It’s a neutered (but updated) take on David Fincher’s The Game, or Black Mirror-lite if you prefer. It’s a shame that it holds itself back in this way, as even a younger audience could handle something more hard hitting. More to the point, they probably need it.
THE PACKAGE
Nerve is well represented with this release. The transfer is sharp, showing impressive detail and contrast. Colors pops, blacks are deep. The film makes use of its New York setting well, a vibrant palette bathed in neon. It’s a gorgeous film at times, and the transfer certainly does it justice.
In tribute to the game played in the film, the extra features are offered up in two modes, Watcher and Player. The Watcher content is broken down into a series of “@” handles, each offering short featurettes, interviews, behind the scenes footage, outtakes, and one even showing a promotional effort showing Nerve being played by attendees at a music festival. The Player content includes The Players, a text/image biography of the film’s protagonists, and Do You Have the Nerve, an interactive game for viewers to play. There’s also another interactive extra, Are You a Watcher or a Player? which will determine which category you are likely to fall into. (Player here!) The Blu-ray release also includes a DVD copy of the film as well as a code for digital download.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Nerve offers up a intriguing idea, one that with a little imagination could very well factor into our future. It can be a little silly at times and never really solidifies its examination of the morals and effects of online misdeeds, preferring instead a lighter look at teen issues. But the chemistry between the leads and a brisk pace allows the film to career through a lot of its flaws, meaning that while insubstantial, it’s at least entertaining.
Nerve is available on Blu-ray and DVD from October 25th.
Get it at Amazon:
Nerve – [Blu-ray] | [DVD] | [Amazon Video]
Originally published at cinapse.co on November 14, 2016.