Poster for Nerve. Photo/gstatic
Are you in the mood for a thinking man’s high-tech thriller? Then Nerve, and its timely cultural commentary at the height of Pokemon Go madness, might be what you are looking for.
Vee Delmonico (Emma Roberts) feels pressure to put a little fun and risk into her life so she starts playing the new app all her friends are into, Nerve. There are two kinds of users: watchers and players. And neither can quit, even if it kills. Soon Vee meets a fellow player, the dashing and daring Ian (Dave Franco), and things get more interesting — not to mention profitable — but it comes at a cost after the dares start rolling in and as things get more dangerous.
It’s more substantive than it sounds and the best movie this year (maybe in years) addressing technology and how it can control us. Nerve is generically neither Sci-Fi nor horror — though the trailer might lead you to conclude the contrary. Short of the cyberpunk mold, the film resembles more of a neo-noir melodrama. Tropes and reminiscences of The Purge, Hunger Games, and Eagle Eye are present, coupled for good measure with a visual style harkening Nicolas Winding Refn (director of Drive and Neon Demon).
POV is often from the vantage point of a smartphone so shots go from low angles to closeups in a heartbeat, but the technique works extremely well and is never overpowering. Directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (the minds behind Catfish — the show and the documentary) keep the cinematography under control.
Nerve has a stunning presentation, smart and postmodern, that sucks you right in, in a way few other contenders at the box office will this summer. A visually arresting thrill ride and brain food, how can you not love that?
