QUEZON City, Philippines (August 2) – Although I’m a fan of Emma Roberts, that’s not the sole reason why I watched Nerve.
Mobile devices, social media and now augmented reality. These developments have great impact in our daily lives. And it can also blur the lines between reality and fiction.
Nerve explores the possibilities offered by these developments. Imagine a game seen and watched by millions. A game that can be seen and watched anywhere and everywhere using your everyday mobile devices.
Anyone can also play. All you need is nerve to do the various dares while gaining prize money for every successful dare accomplished. Not only money, the most daring also get fame and a million watchers.
With the dares becoming more audacious as the game goes, it came as a surprise to everyone when your typical high school wallpaper, Vee, decided to join Nerve as a player.
I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so let’s just say that the movie was a fun ride, a wonderful exercise of “what if”. It is also a statement and a precautionary tale about how our mobile devices as well as social media can potentially swallow up our lives.
Nerve also explores the morality of anonymity. How it is easy to make evil choices when hiding behind a screen name and fake profile photo.
Emma Roberts and Dave Franco played their roles perfectly well. While typically portraying bad girl roles, Roberts exhibited her versatility when she played the goody-two-shoes Vee Delmonico which is just the right foil for the mysterious Ian.
Finally, the movie forces us to confront the changes introduced by technological advances. With augmented reality games like Pokemon Go now available, we must adapt to the new reality where the boundaries between games and real life becomes blurry.
(written by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Vince Alvin Villarin)