Movie Review: Nerve

Nerve

Directed by: Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman.

Written by: Jessica Sharzer based on the novel by Jeanne Ryan.

Starring: Emma Roberts (Vee), Dave Franco (Ian), Emily Meade (Sydney), Miles Heizer (Tommy), Kimiko Glenn (Liv), Marc John Jefferies (Wes), Machine Gun Kelly (Ty), Brian 'Sene' Marc (J.P.), Samira Wiley (Hacker Kween), Juliette Lewis (Nancy). 

 

There is a darker version of Nerve to be made, by some brave filmmaker and studio, that would have the potential to be great – or at least dangerous and disturbing. Nerve isn’t that film – it doesn’t take long to figure out its based on a Young Adult novel because it feels very much like one. In this case, what that means is that it takes an interesting premise, but doesn’t push it to its darkest level – it skitters along on the surface, teasing you that its going to go to some nasty places that it never really gets to, before wrapping things up in a nice, neat little package with an ending that is, quite frankly, awful – and lets everyone off the hook far too easily. Yet, I have to admit – I liked Nerve a lot more than I probably should have – that ending is awful, but even while I was aware of how much better the film could be as I watched it, the cast is so likable and winning, and the film so entertaining that you can forget what the film isn’t doing, and concentrate on what it’s doing well. Yes, it has the easy, black and white morality of a YA novel – but it does have some interesting things to say.

 

The film is about an online game called Nerve – users can either sign up to be a Watcher – and pay a fee – or a player, who will actually get money if the complete the dares the users give them. You fail or bail, you lose. You try and tell the cops, well, Snitches Get Stitches, the game informs the users. How all this works doesn’t really make a lot of sense – and frankly, I don’t care (the last thing the film needs is a 20 minute seminar on how it would work) – because the film uses its premise to simply take what is already happening online now and take it up a notch – basically, young people doing incredibly stupid stuff and posting videos online of them doing it. In fact, the fact that the teenagers are doing all the stupid stuff they do in Nerve actually more sense than it does in real life – at least in the movie, they’re getting paid.

 

The movie focuses on high school senior Vee (Emma Roberts – seriously, is Roberts STILL playing high school girls – it feels like I’ve been watching her do that for a decade now), who is Hollywood’s version of a nerd girl – that is she takes pictures and reads Virginia Woolf, and only her nerd friend Tommy (Miles Heizer) realizes she’s a knockout. She’s embarrassed one day at school – especially after her best friend, Sydney (Emily Meade) calls her “repressed” – and heads home and logs onto Nerve – the game Sydney has been playing, and said Vee wouldn’t have the guts to do. Of course, Vee starts playing – and the dares keep going up. On her first dare, she meets Ian (Dave Franco) – another player, and since the Watchers like them together (and you cannot have a YA story without a meet cute and love story taking over, no matter what the rest of the story is about) and start playing together. It starts out innocently enough – “Kiss a Stranger for 5 seconds” – and then eventually gets to the level of life threatening stunts.

 

To be honest, most of the stunts the Watchers give the Players are fairly innocent - seriously, this is the internet full of horrible people, and yet nothing sexual beyond the kiss comes up? I have a hard time believing that more people who vote for some of the death defying stunts rather than that, but I get the movie doesn’t want to push things into the truly uncomfortable zones for its target audience. It wants to keep everything a little cleaner than that. It’s not hard to imagine though just how messed up this game could become in real life – which is kind of the movie I would have rather seen.

 

Nerve doesn’t go that dark – but on a surface level, the film works. Roberts and Franco are both quite charming in the film, and have an easy screen chemistry together. Having said that, I think the relationships between Vee and Sydney is more complex, and liked how the movie at least attempted to explore that. I would have rather nerd boy Tommy to function a little bit more as a character and a little bit less as a plot device however.

 

Nerve is fun. Directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost – who made Catfish, and therefore know a little something about the dangers of the internet, the film has a glossly sheen to it (as did Catfish actually), but for the at least an hour, the film works. Yes, it flies off the rails in the end – wanting to give everyone a happy ending, and letting everyone get away consequence free – which I think does kind of go against the rest of the film. Maybe just leave at that point, and imagine your own, darker, better ending.

Movie Review: Catfish

Catfish *** ½
Directed by: Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman.

Spoiler Warning: The filmmakers of Catfish really do not want you to know the secrets of the film before you see the film itself, and this is something I concur with - because I’m not sure the film would be as effective if you know too much about it. You can probably read the first four paragraphs of this review and not have too much spoiled for you, but if you are planning on seeing the film, then I would stop reading at the end of paragraph four - or perhaps even at the end of this warning - and come back after you’ve seen the film. But because it really is the surprise in the third act that makes the movie as good as it is, I don’t think I can write a proper review without revealing the twist. So once again, stop reading if you want to preserve the experience of seeing it for yourself. Consider yourself warned.

Facebook has allowed people who never would have met in the past to find each other and bond. This sounds like a good thing - and it can be - but the problem is that meeting people on facebook, or any other social website, still allows a degree of anonymity. People would never think of saying the things they say online in person, but because all it is typing, they feel more confident online - and more prone to lying.

The new documentary Catfish tells the story of Nev, a freelance photography who has one of his photos published in the New York Post. A few months later he receives a painting of that photo - and is told that it is done by an 8 year old. He starts corresponding with the girl, her mother and her older sister. Hat starts out as a friendship between him and the older sister turns into something more. They start flirting with each other online and via text message, and even start talking on the phone. But every time Nev tries to figure out a time and place where they can actually meet in person, there are excuses. And then he discovers that some of the songs she has sent him aren’t really her singing. And this makes him dig a little deeper, and discover more and more inconsistencies with reality between what she has told him, and what he knows to be true. He, and his two friends - the directors of the film - eventually decide to find out the truth they are simply going to have to travel to her house for an unexpected visit. And that, of course, when things get truly weird.

A few people have questioned the veracity of this documentary, but since as far as I can tell no one has been able to prove they faked anything, and because what I saw when I watched the film struck me as legitimate, I have a tendency to believe that its true. If they did fake it all, well then they did a much better job than Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck did in I’m Still Here. As to why the filmmakers decided to start filming all these interactions when they and Nev still took everything that was being said to them at face value, I really don’t have trouble believing it. After all, isn’t the whole concept of Facebook that will all believe that everyone else is interested in even the tiniest details of our lives?

The first act of the movie is interesting because it seems so universal - two people meeting each other online and seemingly share a deep connection. At this point, we have all seen too many movies, too many TV reports about real life connections between people online where one person turns out not to be the person they have made themselves out to be, so we have an uneasy feeling about what will happen. The second act, when Nev and the filmmakers start digging into everything that he has been told, and piecing together all the lies feels inevitable. And yet nothing really prepares us for the final act of the film - which is something that I didn’t really see coming.

Once again, I would advise you to stop reading here if you don’t want to know the secret of the film. Final warning,
When the filmmakers and Nev arrive at the address they are given for this family - in upstate Michigan (they are from New York), they meet who is undoubtedly the most fascinating character in the movie. This is Angela, the mother of Abby, the supposed 8 year old art prodigy, and Megan, the older sister Nev has been flirting with for months on end. She looks nothing like her picture, and Abby doesn’t seem to know too much about Nev, or painting for that matter. Her husband looks different that normal as well, and she has two seriously disabled stepsons, that for some reason no one ever mentioned. When she tells Nev that Megan isn’t home, because she lives upstate at a farm, we already know this is a lie - the farm, was the filmmakers first star, and they find it empty.

Of course it turns out that everyone Nev has been communicating with is all Angela. She does all the paintings, she has been talking, testing and flirting with Nev as her daughter Megan - who does appear to actually exist, although we never find out anything verifiable about her. Angela created unique Facebook profiles for herself, Megan, her other son Alex (who is completely fake) and a host of friends - all to try and fool Nev into thinking they are real.

Angela is a fascinating person, because there doesn’t seem to be a malicious bone in her body. Yes, she was playing a trick on Nev, but she didn’t do it to be mean, but to make up for own life - in which she is somewhat miserable. In Nev, she found someone she could talk to, and kind of be herself - which of course is strange since she is lying constantly. But we simply feel sorry for her, not angry. Not even Nev can bring himself to be angry. He just wants to know why - and that is perhaps the only thing Angela cannot accurately explain to him.

Catfish is a fascinating documentary - about an issue that even 10 years ago wouldn’t have existed. I have no idea how it will play if you know the secret of the film - or on a second viewing for that matter - but the film drew me in, and held my attention - and unlike most films, it gets better, more complex, more interesting as it goes along. If it turns out the film is a hoax, than bravo to the filmmakers. They had been fooled. Because Catfish feels all too real.