Nerve
Directors:
Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman
Cast:
Emma Roberts, Dave Franco.
A high school senior finds herself immersed in an online game of truth or dare, where her every move starts to become manipulated by an anonymous community of “watchers.”
From the directors of “Catfish”….wait, come back.
Ahem….and from the directors of “Paranormal Activity 3” (probably my favorite of the group) comes this suspenseful, adventure set in the “of the moment” digital age.
Emma Roberts stars as a “goody two shoes” girl who is always playing by the rules, and in a moment of embarrassment, signs up for an online “Truth or Dare” reality game show where the participants can win money when they complete a challenge they are assigned to do. Along the way she comes across Dave Franco, another player who’s willing to take all the chances he can to keep playing the game.
This is a mixture of a lot of different movies you might have seen in the past, from “The Running Man” to “The Game” to “The Hunger Games”, but I think this mash up really works. With the story being about a group of High School students, you’re bound to have the typical movie stereotypes, the jock, the nerd, the bad boy, but the filmmaker’s approach of having these characters react to these crazy situations in a realistic way, was really refreshing. I’m a fan of any movie staying ahead of the audience.
The directing here was really immersive, showing unique visuals of what our everyday activities look like as we use our phones and computers to watch, film, and communicate with each other. The soundtrack was also pretty immersive using unique sounding, stylized songs.
Some of the story beats may be a little far fetched, but this is a film that’s not designed to be completely realistic. This movie set out with a purpose, and it completely succeeds in telling this type of story. A fun trip.
-Markellus
