It seems like summer 2016 isn’t the summer for movies and no one is freaking over a particular movie either. Thus, when it came to go to the movies with my mother, the choice was a bit difficult. I mean, my mother is my best friend, she’s pretty opened about everything, but my friends warned me about taking her to watch Bad Moms featuring Mila Kunis. However, after making her watch the trailer she seemed quite excited to watch a movie to which she wouldn’t relate at all, whether on a social or cultural level, yet I feared her Egyptian side would be disappointed. We ended up watching Nerve, and although, its average on Metacritic is 58%, I have to defend it and say it wasn’t bad at all. On the contrary, we were both entertained, but also disturbed.

The movie follows the story of a teenager who just finished high school: Vee (played by Emma Roberts), whose real name is Venus. The movie starts with Vee logging into her computer. What is interesting is that you don’t see Vee completing this action, you only see the computer and its contents. This beginning already sets the audience’s role. We, the viewers, already play a part in the movie by being voyeuristic. We get to see Vee’s every click on her computer screen, her emails, her Facebook profile, etc. You realize it’s disturbing to access to someone’s personal information, and that is the main idea of the movie. The latter doesn’t miss one second to transmit its message. Now, what’s up with Nerve? Nerve is a game, neither legal or illegal, that gives you a choice when you sign up to it: you’re either a player or a watcher (again, voyeur). If you decide to be a player, you have to accept dares thrown at you by the watchers, and every time you complete a dare with success, you receive money. It’s as simple as it sounds, but one condition is to not snitch about that game no matter how dangerous it becomes.

The main actors Emma Roberts and Dave Franco play well in the movie and they make a cute high school-ish couple. They attract you into their/this story and make you part of their lives, but what both are missing in their game is this: it is difficult for you to forget Roberts behind the character of Venus, and the same applies to Franco. But hey, what can you do? Hollywood wants you to remember their stars.

In brief, the movie’s strengths are the plot, the soundtrack, the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, and amazing shots. Together, they help in giving an entertaining, thrilling, and captivating story, which happens in 2020 by the way. Its ending leaves you troubled, thinking, “Is this the future generation our children will be living in?” Yes, it might be. The movies might actually foreshadow what will probably happen in four years.