Released in July, Nerve marked another collaboration between Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman after Paranormal Activities 3, 4, and Catfish. Starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco, two among teenyboppers’ favorites, the movie aimed at being a flashy, fast-paced summer teen flick about the modern tale of what could happen when we try to express true ourselves by taking uncontrollable risks, and based on the output, one can say Nerve has succeeded with that premise.
Venus ‘Vee’ Delmonico (Emma Roberts), a high school senior with a nature of staying in her comfort zone, feels too scared to sign up for her dream college far from home, Staten Island. Due to her brother passing away, her mother, Nancy (Juliette Lewis) wants her to study at any of the
…show more content…
This suits well with Nerve’s overtone about the flamboyant frivolity depicted through the influences of online social networks to youth culture. For the soundtrack, Nerve utilized a long playlist of mostly alternative dance and electro pop, adding to the Tumblr-ish aggressively stylized vibe of the incoming experience exploitation. Overall, the style matches the …show more content…
In the first act, Vee is thoroughly established as a typical nice, reserved gal with a crush, a female best friend who is hotter and more trendy than her and a male best friend who, in turn, has a crush on her. On this note, it probably would have followed a somewhat conventional plotline, with the underlying meaning about Vee’s venture into personal development and self-exploration in order to break through her daily boring routine of fear and anxiety but the actual story came out a little more than just that. Not until the real action kicks in did audience manage to figure out what Nerve was really about. The subtext comes to light as the story unfolds: Nerve is about the kind of toxic, detrimental interaction between two subjects. One is the unpredictably troublesome Internet community deriving from members’ anonymity, which oppresses youth culture regarding both spiritual and material aspects; and the other is the intermixed demand of permanently hedonistic entertainment and the feeling of hyperactive superficiality in the moment that the youngsters are only able to meet with from curious eyes converging on them on the social