REVIEW

Out in Theaters: ‘NERVE’

Name: Nerve review
Item: Nerve
Rating: 2.7
Author: Matt Oakes

By Matt Oakes · July 26, 2016

Where to watch: Available to rent or buy on digital (updated October 2026)Rent or buy on Amazon · Buy on Blu-ray/4KAs an Amazon Associate, Silver Screen Riot earns from qualifying purchases.

There’s an app where you one can observe fearless participants engaging in daredevil antics in order to earn money and fame. Each dare gets them one step closer to the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow while other participants – “watchers” who act as third-party cohorts to the viral sensation – help shape the course of action. No, it’s not the app feature in the new Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (Paranormal Activity 3 & 4) directed film Nerve, it’s called The Runner and it actually exists outside the confines of the movie theater.

Just this morning, news broke of one of these very individuals rappelling down Seattle’s iconic Space Needle. The line between fiction and reality increasingly blurred, the basic premise of Nerve has very real world application, infected it with a dread-laden edge of millennial fringe culture gone haywire.

In the world of Nerve, you choose to be a player or a watcher. The division is simple. For the player, dares are accompanied by a dollar sign. So long as you complete the tasks assigned to you by a democratic mass of voyeuristic watchers, you’re credited with the corresponding amount. Dares include jumping train tracks, skitching behind cop cars, flashing your booty at a sporting event or kissing a complete stranger at a diner.

Watchers do just that: watch.

NerveSSR5

It’s not hard to imagine an app like this existing in 2016, where the increasingly tech-obsessed youth buries themselves further and further into their digital pocket companions. In an era where we howl at online “fails” and hunt for the next twisted example of self-mutilation to one-up the last, Nerve can thrive. Where the anonymity of viewers translates to moral passivity and latent apathy, Nerve can weaponize. It’s a frightening concept and one that Nerve manages to confront in a somewhat meaningful way, even if the stepping stones to its moralizing are elementary and ultimately shallow.

We find Emma Roberts’ Vee existing beyond the division of player and watcher, an innocuous bystander innocent of the growing Nerve infatuation. A soft-spoken artist too afraid to tell off her overbearing mother (Juliette Lewis) and narcissistic best friend Sydney (Emily Meade), Vee drifts through life, ever the watcher.

Vee’s lack of go–getter spunk executes a 180 when she’s publicly rejected be her football captain crush, who Sydney asks out on her behalf. Sick of waiting for the meek to inherit the earth, she presses the unique makeup that is her fingerprint against her computer screen (touchscreen technology never seemed so ready to absorb one’s identity) and signs into Nerve as a player.

The script from Jessica Sharzer wastes little time accelerating events from there. In no time, Vee is paired up with a grinning Cheshire Cat of a companion in @_Ian_ (Dave Franco) and the two bustle around the city completing various tasks – from trying on designer clothes to motorcycling blindfolded – quickly becoming the most watched players in the entirety of New York City and forging a romantic flirtation that threatens to complicate the dares tossed their way.

Nerve thrives in the chemistry made by the pairing of Roberts and Franco. Her nervous reserve of energy dazzlingly pairs with his easy charm and smug bravado. The trust built and fractured between them speaks to their intrigue as characters – shallow though their construction may be. Considering neither are too much more than chess pieces trapped in an increasingly dangerous game, our general concern for their well-being is admirable.

As Vee comes out of her shell, Roberts’ wavering voice finds confidence, allowing Nerve to become a decidedly encouraging piece of feminist fiction for the tween crowds. She’s the Katniss of NYC (minus the pout) and Nerve is happy to draw the comparison in a finale that stretches credibility wafer-thin.

As the stakes grow higher, Nerve unveils some sequences that will prove bracingly intense for the acrophobic, sure to wet the palms of anyone who’s looked over a ledge and quivered before. But for all the success gained in the charismatic pairing of Roberts and Franco and Nerve’s most unnerving dares, the manically silly third act subterfuges – including a super secret hacker society that allows some mom entry, character relationships that bend and sway according to the demands of the plot with the flexibility of bamboo, and a shadowy organization whose powers are as ill-defined as they are seemingly omnipotent – poisons its otherwise serious take on the teen-friendly thriller.

CONCLUSION: ‘Nerve’ proves adequately thrilling if overly simplified escapism that doubles as an able showcase for Emma Roberts and Dave Franco’s budding movie star prowess. Its parallels to modern connectivity-obsessed culture though ultimately proves more chilling than anything captured in the film itself.