Title: Nerve
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Starring: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Emily Meade
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

What It Is: High school senior Vee (Roberts) leads a rather uninteresting existence. Her best friend Sydney (Meade) introduces her to a viral game called NERVE that’s just hit New York City. When she meets fellow “Player” Ian (Franco) the two will do whatever is thrown their way in order to gain “watchers” in hopes of winning the game and earning whatever cash rewards lay in wait. Ian’s intention are not exactly this, however, and when those come to light they may be in danger.

What We Think: This is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Emma Roberts does a really good job of characterizing Vee as this nieve young girl whose yet to truly live. It is this innocent demeanor that sort of makes her “transformation” odd. Her “relationship” with Ian isn’t as fleshed out as it needed to be, but given the runtime, there were casualties galore in the story department. Most of the ancillary characters are either annoying or inconsequential. This definitely includes “rapper” Machine Gun Kelly as the “villain” Ty. I liked what Joost and Schulman are doing here behind the lens, though. Not only does it feel fresh, but it seems to totally understand its audience. That is at least the one it’s aiming for, and if you did not know that’s certainly the 12 to 25 audience. One of which I am no longer a part of.

Our Grade: C+, Struggles to work through Jessica Sharzer’s adaptation of Jeanne Ryan’s novel. Its leads are all well and good but they get no support from the…well supporting actors. This really could’ve been one of the year’s worst instead it’s just a film that was meh. I’ll say this much it isn’t the worse way to spend two hours. I would certainly send you all out to watch this. A real surprise to be sure.