In a time when our lives revolve around social media and posting everything about ourselves online (bank account information, government data, personal information) coupled with this insatiable need to be insta-famous with countless likes and followers, "NERVE" takes a big mirror and shows us our own ugly reflection.
Vee (Emma Roberts) is a shy senior, who plays second fiddle to her best friend, the popular, confident cheerleader, Sydney. A talented photographer, Vee is having trouble telling her mom she wants to enroll in a far off art school. Vee's mom would rather have her enroll in the nearby college, where she can keep tabs on her. This is at the wake of her older brother's tragic death.
With an over protective mom, boy problems and being humiliated by Sydney, Vee steps out of her shy persona and joins NERVE, an online game where you sign up to be a Watcher or a Player. As a Player you perform dares for prize money. Watchers gather information about players and ask them to do dares, they are also tasked to take videos of watchers as they perform their dares.
The players who can't complete the dares are out of the game.
What starts out as a simple and harmless dare leads Vee to a crazy night, also meeting fellow Player the handsome, Ian (Dave Franco) but with the dares becoming more dangerous can Vee really trust Ian?
The film explores both concepts of a Cyber Voyeur and a Cyber Exhibitionist, it might sound silly but with Facebook Live and Viral videos on YouTube, is a game like NERVE really too far-fetched?
There were also some interesting themes and talking points in the film, such as hiding behind anonymity and what it means to take responsibility over your actions online. There was also a scene in the film which reminded me of the Romans in the Colliseum with their brutal pit fights which serve as their entertainment.
The audience loved the movie, I could hear them reacting to the exciting and emotional parts in the film. They were really rooting for the two lead characters and I always take that as a good indication that the film was enjoyable. I myself enjoyed it but found the ending flat and predictable, a tad bit corny actually but forgivable for the interesting use and incorporation of what's on your phone's screen to the film. Plus they have some good choices in songs, my favorite is "Electric Love" by BØRNS.
7.5 out of 10, NERVE is now showing in cinemas!
I was already midway in the book (yes, it's based on a young adult book) when I saw the movie and I can tell that the movie was definitely better.
Book review to follow!
No comments:
Post a Comment