Review of Nerve (2016) by Scott T — 12 Aug 2016

Proper Perspective: This felt like a thriller for 12-14 year olds, written and produced by 12-14 year olds. That is not necessarily a bad thing, just summing up the movie in the best way I can. Nerve was fun, ridiculous, entertaining, and very much for the kids...

In theory this could be a fun reality where anyone can sign-up for this ultra-exclusive and super secretive game to either pay to be a Watcher or earn money to be a Player.

Sort of an allegory for some people's high school life. Or life in general. Life, man.

Nerve creates a world where the more popular you are, the more daring you are, the more money you can earn throughout the day before the two most popular gamers earn their spot into a final showdown. Nerve is an ultra-secretive club that everyone knows about. In this world the mild mannered Vee (Emma Roberts) is challenged by her wild friend Sydney (Emily Meade) to play Nerve. When she decides to play, the game innocently guides her to meet Ian (Dave Franco) and they go on a wild journey that will finally break Vee out of her shell.

The problem is the game (the internet) had her meet Ian, who has a suspicious past, on purpose and the two of them have to work together to win the "challenges" from the world of anonymous users in Nerve or they will literally destroy her life and making her a prisoner of the game itself. Dammit, internet.

There is lot in this movie. It tried to be a social commentary on anonymous internet users and the lack of responsibility they have in their actions.

It also wanted to be a PG-13 Purge-ish movie where we live in an else-world where the most popular thing in the world is not tracked, stopped, or controlled. A random high school kid has the hacking ability to shut it all down if need be and everything going on is like magic in Harry Potter, only the wizards that matter know what is happening in front of EVERYONE!

Enough negative, this movie was fun. More fun than I expected going in and if you are 11-5 years old you will love this movie.

Turn your brain off for 96 minutes and slip into this world. Check it out on Redbox and enjoy with some friends, and some juice boxes.

Nerve is the socially conscious movie we all needed about the internet and anonymous jack-arses. Everything is going to change now and we are going to better as a culture now. Thank goodness.

Oh, yeah there is a lot of neon, product placement, internet stuff that I did know was a thing, and weird music. So if that is your thing, yeah.