Nerve (15, 96 mins, ★★)
As a teenage boy growing up in the 1990s I was duty-bound to love The Word, Channel 4’s deliriously profane Friday night show. Amid the noisy bands and drunken guests, there was a section called “The Hopefuls”, which involved a member of the public doing something disgusting such as eating their own toenails (actually one of the tamer examples), followed by them speaking the immortal words: “I’d do anything to get on TV.”
Nerve drags “The Hopefuls” format – unknowingly, I assume – into the digital age. Based on the novel for young adults by Jeanne Ryan, it tells the story of an uptight teenager called Vee who gets drawn into an online game, Nerve, that splits players into “watchers” and “players”. Nerve players must record themselves doing dares suggested by the watchers in return for cash and “likes”. As the players progress through the game, the dares become increasingly outrageous: not so much “I’d do anything to get on TV” as “I’d do anything to improve my social media profile”.
