Nerve
Lionsgate | Release Date: July 27, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
15
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostKyle SmithJul 28, 2016
The sharpest, wildest and most unpredictable thriller I’ve seen this year. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJul 26, 2016
Blisteringly cool one moment and ridiculously silly the next (much like its high school heroine), this punchy and propulsive late summer surprise is able to capture the way we live now because it displays such a vivid understanding of the reasons why we live that way. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinJul 27, 2016
Nerve, a thriller set in a world of smartphone-obsessed teens, is clever, exciting, sweet and full of quick twists that never devolve from serving a well-built story. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 28, 2016
Nerve does a better job with its style and pacing than it does with its characters but, ultimately, Vee is likable enough for us to stay on the ride with her. For a late-summer throwaway, the film is surprisingly entertaining. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 28, 2016
The complicated truth is that the Internet’s dangers are entwined with its pleasures, the allure of instant fame, the illusion of contact with masses of people. Nerve is the first movie to capture all that, and the result is a successful and memorable thriller. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJul 27, 2016
Nerve wants to be a cautionary tale about the perils of desiring fame through social media, but it isn’t willing to go to the darker depths this material requires. It opts to stay on a more superficial and very goofy level, and while that has its enjoyable charms, it pretty much negates the film’s message. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 26, 2016
Nerve is a comic-book vision of how the Internet has become a gladiatorial arena of voyeurism. But the movie, like the game it’s about, is hard to stop watching, even when you know it’s playing you. Read full review
67
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonJul 28, 2016
Though Roberts is miscast as a wallflower — seriously, the film expects us to believe a jock in her class would dismiss the mannequin-perfect beauty as “not my type” — Nerve taps into the rush of realizing strangers think you’re cool. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJul 27, 2016
Up until now, Roberts and Franco have been second-tier actors in the industry food chain, but their first-rate performances in this better-than-average genre flick exude something called charisma. After this film, the two of them may graduate from watchers to players. Read full review
67
The PlaylistWill AshtonJul 27, 2016
As inviting as it is immersive and convivial, Nerve is bumpy, sloppy and rather unsophisticated, but it’s also ultimately sociable, warm, endearing and, most of all, pretty fun. Read full review
67
The Film StageJohn FinkJul 27, 2016
The characters are just complex enough and the action is just engrossing enough to keep us interested, but Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, working from Jeanne Ryan’s novel, haven’t quite built a solid-enough foundation to foster a genuinely compelling commentary on today’s social media obsession. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 26, 2016
Like most films about technology, Nerve will endure as a time capsule, fascinating future generations with either its prescience or its quaintness. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyKevin P. SullivanJul 26, 2016
This is a film about young people with a youthful energy and sense of fun that’s refreshing, especially in the summer of movies we’ve had so far. The tone and relatively low stakes allows Nerve to be shallow, divertive escapism—kind of like Snapchat. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryJul 28, 2016
Nerve is exciting, topical and potentially prescient, but it scores no points for character development, and the plot holes are so big that you could, well, drive a speeding motorcycle through them. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 27, 2016
A smart and reasonably taut thriller aimed at a generation that may be hard to convince to put down its phones long enough to watch. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJul 27, 2016
Nerve gives moviegoers everything they'd want from a teen romance. It's a little less successful as a critique of life in the age of Instagram. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerJul 27, 2016
Nerve looks fabulous and the pace is evenly adrenalized, which makes up for clichéd characters, a concocted premise and commentary that is a bit on the nose. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJul 26, 2016
As Nerve builds to a roaring Thunderdome climax (which is resolved all too easily), it starts to lose its grip. But the ride is a neon-saturated teenage dream, high on first kisses and digital hearts. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 11, 2016
Nerve zips along, looks really smashing and has the mental wiring of a hyperactive squirrel. You may well risk it anyway. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 27, 2016
The city and the plot points wheel right by, the leads fetchingly entranced with each other. If one patch of dares disappoints, there's another coming right up, and the directors stage and shoot them with swooning neon kinecticism. Read full review
60
Time OutAnna SmithJul 26, 2016
With its engaging story, energetic soundtrack and slick production values, Nerve is an easy watch for restless young minds. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJul 26, 2016
It’s rare when you can pinpoint the exact moment a movie goes off the rails, but when Nerve downshifts from far-fetched parable into idiotic action, the film at least has the decency to speed itself along to get to the ending. Read full review
55
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 26, 2016
While the film’s vertiginous set pieces are appropriately heart-clenching, it’s not nearly as successful at little details like plot and character. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 28, 2016
There's a killer idea circling this tricked-up teen thriller, which is more than you can say for most summer movies. But the idea never lands because Nerve lacks the, well, nerve to follow through on its convictions. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 28, 2016
There’s a line between enjoyably stupid and stupid-stupid, and Nerve sails over it right around the halfway mark. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJul 27, 2016
Unfortunately, the filmmakers — busily splashing the film in crayon-colored light, vaguely sinister pop music and jittery camerawork — forgot to give Vee and Handsome Stranger (his name’s Ian) much personality. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayJul 26, 2016
By merely transposing its generic high school clique drama onto an augmented reality platform, Nerve sacrifices most of its novelty, but the filmmakers demonstrate a marginal interest in how this mediated environment warps the perspectives of its characters. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJul 26, 2016
For all its hints at imminent catastrophe, Nerve feels surprisingly tame. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 26, 2016
Emma Roberts and Dave Franco are just fine, but there’s no huge onscreen spark between them. Most of the supporting roles are thinly drawn and forgettable. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 26, 2016
You certainly won't be bored. And if you go into Nerve looking for a thrill ride, you won't be disappointed. If you're hoping for more, that's a different story. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJul 26, 2016
Nerve is refreshing and frustrating in equal measures, mining a genuinely inventive concept for some memorable, Mean Girls-esque pathos about the ways in which the Internet is changing and magnifying social structures for young people today. Read full review
50
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJul 26, 2016
For all that it bounces off a lot of contentious issues about children and the internet, where Carrie-style bullying has moved into the unsupervised zone of cyberspace, Nerve frustratingly stops short before eventually falling in on itself in the third act. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweJul 26, 2016
Fortunately Schulman and Joost keep the film visually engaging.... All that busyness onscreen distracts somewhat from the impression that Roberts and Franco don't look much like teenagers, although they form a fairly good team as long as they’re pursuing specific challenges rather than sharing their nascent emotions for one another or attempting to unravel the intricacies of the game. Read full review
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