The world of films has always been fascinated with the dark side of the internet. There have been several attempts to depict the notorious side of the internet in earlier ventures, but the recent film, Nerve seems to have tapped the right nerve.
The film is directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, the directors behind Catfish, which again dealt with another gory side of the internet when it comes to identities. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Jeanne Ryan.
The tagline of the film – Truth or Dare but without the Truth sums up the premise for Nerve. The film gets together (Vee) Emma Roberts and (Ian) Dave Franco in an online game of dare called Nerve.
The game of Nerve is a game where watchers pay to watch, and players play to win. There are challenges that the players have to complete, and they are paid for the challenges they finish.
Nerve shows Vee being coaxed by her friends to do something interesting and fun, and this makes her register as a player in Nerve. According to NST, Vee is smart but she tries hard to prove herself to those around her. This makes her become a victim to peer pressure.
Vee has her first task where she has to kiss a stranger, and she ends up kissing Franco’s Ian. While she thought that her tryst with the stranger would end there, she is made to join the stranger and head to Sin City.
The two of them have millions of viewers watching their every move. They are asked to look for an expensive outfit at a fashion store and then compelled to steal it from there.
However, things get tougher and tougher as they progress, and Vee and Ian realize that there’s no way out of the game. If the player decides to quit, she or he loses everything. When Vee and Ian try to get the authorities involved, they become snitches and snitches should be snitched.
There is a point where Vee realizes that she and Ian have become prisoners of the game, and there is no way out. When she tries to quit, she finds out that all her family’s money has been wiped out by an unknown force, and she has no option, but to keep going on and completing her challenge. Every move of the two players are followed by the eyes of a smartphone, and the city of New York plays the magnificent stage to the unfolding of the drama.
Independent reported that given the current craze of Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game that is depicted in the film is going to be something that the viewers will instantly connect with. Nerve focuses on the Pokémon Go generation that is constantly on the move with their phones looking to complete targets.
Nerve shows the world where a game becomes an alternate reality. It invades and manipulates one’s life. Nerve seems to be similar to the Jackass series where people end up doing stupid things for the sake of providing entertainment to the public.
The film, while highlighting the dark side of the internet, also deals with the usual elements that makes a teen movie click. It has the boy meet girl angle as well as the coming-of-age story.