Checked out the new movie Nerve which opens, somewhat inexplicably, on Wednesday and had early Tuesday evening showings (when the local theater has “guest appreciation” ticket prices so, hey, cheap tickets!). This is the new movie about people playing an online, interactive truth or dare… you sign-up as a player and watchers dare you to do things for cash.
Our hero, played by Emma Roberts, decides she’s tired of living a sheltered life and goes for it. She runs into another player (played by Dave Franco) and they run around NYC doing increasingly dumb and dangerous things… until they get in too deep (!!!).
This is an alright little thriller with a fun soundtrack and decent acting. It has a theme that it rather pounds home too aggressively in the disappointing final act… but it’s a good theme about the safety of online anonymity and how that creates jerk and troll-like behavior. Like I said though, any subtext rapidly becomes text which suggests the film makers didn’t trust their audience.
But, still, a good enough suspense thriller. Reminded me a bit of the Michael Douglas movie The Game, only with crowd-sourcing and The Cloud.
The funny thing is, when I first saw the trailer, I thought, “Nah, decent idea but odds of running into all these watchers who are filming you do your dares is pretty unlikely.” Then Pokemon Go happened and suddenly this movie is not only believable but almost prescient. This in-movie truth or dare game seems completely reasonable, what with geo-locating, GPS positioning, crowd-sourcing, and flash mobs.
So, yeah, probably a movie that will come and go quickly but if you catch it, there’s much worse movies to watch. I enjoyed most of it but found it got a little preachy at the end.
Score: 81