by Frank Calvillo
There is one aspect of the new teen thriller Nerve which I found to be incredibly unbelievable in a film which pushes the limits of believability to no end. It wasn’t any one plot device, character, or stunt which had me scratching my head, but rather the fact that Nerve was based on a novel. I couldn’t fathom that such a story should begin on the page when the sheer excitement of Nerve depends on strong visuals. From dynamic shots of New York City to the sharp angles used to heighten the danger of several of the dares various characters undertake, so much of the reason for Nerve’s potency can be chalked up to its strong visual element, which is great since the film itself is something of a mixed bag.
In Nerve, Emma Roberts plays Vee, a high school senior living in the shadow of her best friend Sydney (Emily Meade). Vee likes her life, but wishes for something more, such as the courage to tell her mom Nancy (Juliette Lewis) about her desire to go to college in California. She learns Sydney has taken part in an online version of truth or dare called Nerve, where participants are divided into two categories, watchers and players, with the former creating elaborate and risky dares for the latter. Intrigued, Vee sees this as her chance to prove she can live on the edge. Soon after starting Nerve, Vee meets the charming Ian (Dave Franco), another Nerve player who is paired up with her at the request of the watchers. Things go fine for the lovestruck duo at first, until they quickly find themselves becoming prisoners of the now-deadly game.
If it feels like there’s a lot going on in Nerve, it’s because there is. While the plot moves at lightning speed with many actions and twists happening all the time, it’s the filmmakers desire to cram the film with a variety of genres which makes Nerve come off as bloated as it does. Ostensibly a thriller, the film also tries to make itself into a teen comedy, a tale about female friendship, and a love story. While it doesn’t necessarily fail to do justice to any of these sub-plots, Nerve doesn’t make the transitions between the different genres seamless. Hybrid films can be quite diverting when done right. However, here the filmmakers are saddled with a bloated script which tries to shine a spotlight on one too many storytelling tropes, making audience members exhausted in the process.
All of that aside, Nerve succeeds in the biting commentary it sets out to convey. Online gamers and exhibitionists alike are sent up through the film’s illustration of just how fame-hungry and attention-starved the world is nowadays. Seeing players garner both cash and fans with the completion of every single dare they take on (which become more and more outrageous as the game progresses) reaches new levels of depravity. This is especially true when the game turns on the players, reinforcing the idea that nothing is sacred and the world we live in is callous and cynical. Nerve comments on how even the act of voyeurism has changed since the days of Rear Window. The film is one of the few which states that simply sitting back and watching carries the same weight as pushing someone off a ledge. There’s a moment in Nerve where the film reaches its peak in both thrills and ideology when a slightly drunk Sydney is asked to climb across two adjacent multiple story buildings via ladder. With a collection of watchers (some genuinely petrified, others virtually foaming at the mouth) surrounding her, the character is brought to her knees and back to reality, coming face to face with the person she had allowed Nerve and all its participants to turn her into.
The entire sequence proves so heart-pounding and telling that Nerve clearly struggles with where to go next after saying what it set out to say. The scene was a tough act to follow, and the filmmakers know this. After sending another character to take on the very same stunt Sydney undertook, the minds behind Nerve opt for a conventional thriller motif to end their film. Certain characters form alliances while others use their technology-savvy backgrounds to do what they can to save the day. Everything is pulled together enough in the final act to ensure that there aren’t too many holes remaining, but it’s clear by the film’s end that Nerve is tirelessly competing with itself.
A film like Nerve isn’t one built on solid performances, but this film certainly has them. Franco and Roberts prove likable and capable enough leads to keep the audience rooting for them. Roberts in particular has never let her winning loveliness shine on screen quite the way she does here. Lewis does a fine job in one of her first mom roles, while supporting turns from Miles Heizer as one of Vee’s friends and Machine Gun Kelly as the film’s main heavy help the film keep up its rollercoaster-like pace. The best turn in the film belongs to Emily Meade, who takes Sydney beyond the confines of the bitchy best friend and beautifully exposes her vulnerability. It’s another flawless turn from one of the greatest young actresses around.
One other aspect of Nerve I found to be too much to buy was the fact that being a watcher requires individuals to pay $19.95/hour to witness all the foolish acts happen live. I can honestly say that out of all of my friends, I can’t think of a single one who would be desperate enough to fork over such an amount on an hourly basis to watch anything that happened throughout the course of the movie. Pushing that and the too neatly wrapped-up finale aside, Nerve does succeed in its mission of societal commentary. At times throughout the film I was reminded of the old school gladiators and the many people who would gather at the coliseum to watch them fight to the death in Roman times. I always wondered if we were ever so barbaric a society that such an act was an acceptable form of entertainment. As the hyperreal mobile version that is Nerve suggests, we still are.
