A rich game of dare has two strangers wondering if they have the “Nerve” to survive the night. From the directing duo of Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, comes “Nerve”, a deadly thriller that combines technological concerns and high-energy paranoia. Industrious high school senior, Vee Delmonico (Emma Roberts), has had it with living life on the sidelines. Playing it safe has her life lacking any kind of edgy excitement. But When pressured by friends to join the highly popular online game Nerve, Vee decides to sign up for just one dare in what seems like harmless fun to make quick cash. But as she finds herself caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition partnered with a mysterious stranger named Ian (Dave Franco), the game begins to take a sinister turn with increasingly dangerous acts, leading her into a high stakes finale that will determine her entire future. “Nerve” is rated PG-13 for thematic material involving dangerous and risky behavior, some sexual content, adult language, drug content, drinking and nudity.

“Nerve” feels like a social commentary teen drama on our dependency on technology, but mainly in our addiction to everyday train-wrecks that are posted for our entertainment. It’s pretty obvious to see this direction from the opening sequence, but unfortunately this concept is lost in a shuffle of a paper thin script that offered very little backstory for the characters or the very concept of how this game became popular in the first place. The film is weighed down heavily by an abundance of unanswered questions, as well as predictability that left every scene easily telegraphed. That’s not to say that this film doesn’t have positive going for it. Mainly, the style and camera angles for the film are technically sound, considering this is the shot-on-video generation. A majority of films today have the POV style, but this film’s usage of it makes a lot of sense. The ending feels very contrived because it left me stranded with so many questions (More on that later), but mainly because there’s very little suspense in something that offered no payoffs along the way.

For most of the first half of the film, this is a sweet story about a girl who comes out of her shell. The script’s underlying issue of living your life carefree is a little irresponsible, especially considering the outcomes of some of these dares, but overall harmless for any teenage girl who sees themselves in the character of Vee. Once the second act comes along, the stakes are elevated slightly higher, using its reality television platform a little more significantly. I waited patiently hoping some character development was going to come, but sadly it never does. These are characters (Vee included) whose writing is completely jumbled in the stratosphere of teenage cliques and stereotypes. Very little makes their characters relatable, especially as the story reaches for an audience in suspense that simply was never there. I say this a lot in my reviews unfortunately, but it never fails to ring true. “Nerve” is another movie whose trailer reveals far too much about this film. Growing increasingly convoluted the further it wades into its monotonous territory, this movie left very little suspense on the table if you paid attention during the two minute trailer. It really laid everything out in terms of creative direction for the movie, and unfortunately there were very few moments where I was faithfully invested in the well-being of the characters.

I mentioned earlier about the action being shot well, and for some scenes the creative direction does breakthrough the mold of dull plotting. There are three scenes in the film that involve heights, and one would think that this might be going to the same well too many times, but that’s not the case. Each stunt gets bigger and bigger, and the stakes do feel increased slightly with the sound of each message. I also greatly enjoyed the fast-paced style of the motorcycle scenes throughout the movie. The framing work, while not great, does stay ahead of everything going on on-screen, never allowing us to get lost in the high speeds. There is an overall eye-appeasing style to the film’s backdrops and set pieces. A lot of this film felt like a modern day “Battle Royale” to me, especially a finale where our protagonists see the very magnitude of the army that they are up against. Art production goes a long way here, and this combined with an adult-like feel in tone at times, at least kept the movie from ever being a complete bore to me.

Some of my biggest questions about the movie went unanswered for the entirety of the 91 minutes, and really leaves those bullet-size holes gaping wider when you break it down and think about it. Where does the money come from? Who is behind this deadly game? How has this stayed a secret from the NYPD? You would think that all of these questions seem like reasonable concerns to anyone who has watched a movie ever, but this isn’t in the thought process of the dual directors. One aspect of the script that made me laugh about our shadow antagonist is when the movie tells us that they don’t operate on a server. I’m not a computer wiz, but good luck operating an app that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers play every day without needing a server. If you can get past this jump of logic, the app pays players every time they complete a dare, so is this a world where transactions can’t be traced, down to the very area geographically where they came from? I realize to take this movie seriously is like taking any teenage soap opera seriously, but if there’s zero logic in setting the rules for an inventive plot, it makes it hard to ever fully dedicate myself to it.

The acting was fine enough. It was refreshing to see Emma Roberts play a likeable character for once. The last few projects she has taken on in film always seem to highlight her as either a bitch or a complete loser. She was someone who I enjoyed following around for the majority of the movie. At the age of 25 in real life, it is beginning to get a little more difficult to suspend disbelief that she can play a high school girl, but she portrayed the age group accordingly, and she is perhaps the best casting of the film. Dave Franco is still difficult to take seriously, especially as an action star here. He always feels like he’s one fart joke away from busting out loud laughter in every one of his scenes. The chemistry between the two leads feels a little forced at times, but their irresistible charms always have you rooting for their success. Machine Gun Kelly is possibly one of the worst actors of the year. I know the guy can act because I’ve seen him in the television show “Roadies”, but here his performance is very wooden, with line deliveries that were cringe-worthy often. Kelly is somewhat the best antagonist that we have for the movie because nothing is ever answered about this shadow group, and Kelly just can’t pull off menacing in any capacity.

Overall, “Nerve” is exactly what it will take to get you through an hour-and-a-half of this mundane social commentary about bullying and social network dangers. The finale comes to a screeching halt in terms of the logical creative flow for the movie. The film’s tagline is “Are you a watcher or a player?”. I was a watcher, but that had me regretting my role just as much as the characters who are fighting to save their own lives.

5/10