social network underground

OMG. No Wi-Fi? Like, epic FAIL!

Back in my high school days, the term "social media" was at the time, a non-existant word among teenagers. Myspace was just barely gaining the attention of young, gullible high schoolers, Facebook was just coming out of the gates, and Twitter was still an idea in Jack Dorsey's mind. To be considered popular, all you needed was a decent pair of Converse shoes and a flip phone (yeah, it was a long, long time ago). Nowadays, you can't find a teenager without a smartphone taking a selfie or snapchatting to their friends, and to an extent adults as well. To the naive, social media is an extension of themselves to feel cool and be popular; to the realists (such as myself), there is a dark side that can ruin your life by the simple tap of a touchscreen. Nerve surprisingly tackles these themes of the current generation's obsession with

social media and online trolling with uneven but admirable feats. The film opens up ironically on a computer screen as we see high school senior Vee (Emma Roberts) checking out her social profiles and accounts. Vee learns of an online game called Nerve where individuals can participate in online dares as either a watcher or a player, the latter earning them money. She is goaded by one of her friends to join and against her reluctance she participates as a player. The dares start out small and juvenile as Vee quickly becomes a sensation with watchers and her close friends while gaining a significant amount of money. As she continues to win the challenges, the dares slowly begin to escalate to being dangerous and life-threatening, at which point Vee realizes that the only way to exit the game is to win at any cost. I didn't have high expectations for Nerve as I easily passed it off as one of those cheap, teen flicks that appears in theaters to make a quick buck and then disappears after a month or two. Instead, the film intrigued me with its' engrossing pace and thrills which is saying a lot when it comes to these teen movies seeing as how they're not memorable for being, simply put, watchable. Nerve manages to portray the ugly side of social media without being gratuitous and it doesn't muddle its' message of responsibility and how sometimes forgoing popularity garners its' own rewards. I hardly ever see movies like Nerve where it actually teaches kids the dangers of social media instead of glorifying it. That alone is reason enough to see the film but it's also a solid film that both teens and adults can enjoy and thus gets a recommendation.

​-Reviewed by Razor, 11/13/16