As the old Perry Como classic goes, when you have sons you worry, but when you have daughters you pray - any parents of teenagers will be doing even more of both after watching Nerve. Slick and snarky, it's all about the sinister side of social media status as Emma Roberts' character Vee goes from wallflower to wild thing over the course of one night.
Having watched extrovert friend Sydney (Emily Meade) flaunt her fabulousness by accepting the dares from 'watchers' on the online game Nerve, Vee decides to get in on the action herself. From kissing stranger Ian (Dave Franco) to accepting his bike ride into New York, Vee's initial experiences of Nerve are fun, but as the night goes on the dares turn darker. And it's not long before Vee and Ian are playing for the highest of stakes - their lives.
It's not often you can complain these days about a teen movie being too short but with Nerve just hitting the 90-minute mark (minus credits) that's what happens here. Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman - Paranormal Activity veterans and the duo behind hit dating documentary Catfish - really should've thought a little more of the attention spans of their target audience by adding another 20 minutes, thereby cranking up the tension and digging deeper into the characters from screenwriter Jessica Sharzer's source novel. Roberts and Franco are both likeable but their relationship is too rushed, while a great set-piece involving a horizontal ladder shows up the shenanigans lacking in some other scenes.
Compared to the Michael Douglas-starring head-melter The Game, Nerve is really only a warm-up, but it is fun and it will keep you off your own phone for a bit. Maybe.
Harry Guerin
