FILM: Nerve
CAST: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Juliette Lewis
DIRECTION: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
The romantic teen cyber thriller Nerve makes for a fascinating double feature with another release this year, Jason Bourne. Both films want to debate the ways in which online surveillance affects our everyday lives, but while Bourne wrestles with the state and corporate America, Nerve throws caution to the wind and exchanges privacy for cold, hard cash proffered by a bloodthirsty, anonymous mob.
The jittery, colourful Nerve is directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who explored the complicated nuances of digital existence – and invented a euphemism – in the 2010 documentary Catfish. Nerve is very different, but no less concerned with the consequences of exposing yourself to mysterious forces on the Internet.
The film is Mr Robot meets Battle Royale with a dash of the stylistic wackiness of Luc Besson’s Lucy. Audio-visually, it feels like your best night out, veins coursing with adrenaline, heart thumping with sinewy electronic music.
It feels like existing inside a smartphone, as the actors like, swipe, tap and livestream their way through the game.
The game is called Nerve; it’s truth or dare on steroids for millions of online viewers. It demands: Are you a Watcher or a Player? Reserved Staten Island teen Vee (Emma Roberts) signs up as a Player after a blow-up with her wild best friend Sydney (Emily Meade).
Vee’s finally ready to break out of her shell and take life one dare at a time. On her first assignment, she connects with Ian (Dave Franco), and the horde demands that the two team up to tackle their dares, which escalate dangerously.
Roberts and Franco are just winsome enough to serve as the romantic leading couple, but they’re eclipsed by the far more charismatic and ruthless players Sydney and Ty (Colson Baker, aka rapper Machine Gun Kelly). They capture the edgy desperation that the game draws out in the thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies who just don’t know where to draw the line.
Nerve is highly attuned to the realities of clandestine digital surveillance. The players talk about how the app scrapes their networked existence of Internet cookie crumbs to tailor dares to each individual – but they nonchalantly offer up their exposed online selves in exchange for cash, as well as likes and follows, which are almost more prized. This is informed consent to be scrutinised for money, an attitude we’re familiar with in our world of Instagram stars and branded Snapchats.
Exposure is currency but it’s also a weapon, one that can be wielded against the Players, who become online stars, and the Watchers, who hide behind screens and masks, cheering for the game to get more dangerous like the crowd at a Roman coliseum. With a decentralised, shadowy group of watchers and bots in charge of the game, the only way out is to play. -Tribune News Agency
Return of Murphy
FILM: Mr Church
CAST: Eddie Murphy, Britt Robertson, Natascha McElhone
DIRECTION: Bruce Beresford
One of the biggest movie stars in the 1980s and a frequent draw into the early 2000s, Eddie Murphy’s career flatlined after he lost on his first Oscar nomination (as a Dreamgirls supporting actor) the same winter that Norbit did good business to ice cold reviews. Murphy had weathered major flops before, like 1998’s Holy Man and 2002’s somewhat infamous The Adventures of Pluto Nash. But something seemed to change after the Dreamgirls/Norbit combination that made Murphy unappealing to moviegoers.
“Inspired by a true friendship”, Mr Church opens in 1971. In Los Angeles, 12-year-old Charlotte (Natalie Coughlin) and her single mother Marie (Natascha McElhone) awaken one morning to find Henry Joseph Church (Murphy) in their kitchen preparing breakfast. Mr Church is a gift to the family from Marie’s deceased lover, who was married to someone else. Unbeknownst to Charlie, Marie has been diagnosed with breast cancer and given six months to live. In exchange for a lifetime of financial security, Mr Church has agreed to cook for the mother and daughter until the mother passes.
The only somewhat strange thing about Mr Church is his demand for privacy. He deflects Charlie’s questions about his personal life. All she really knows is that he also lives and works at a jazz club called Jelly’s Place. But glimpses emerge of his demons and a drinking problem. The movie does not linger on Mr Church’s dark side, instead celebrating his generous soul and magnanimity.
Murphy must have foreseen this as a comeback vehicle. But the result has not been that rewarding. -NS
Straying from Lewis Carroll
By Rick Bentley
FILM: Alice through the Looking Glass
CAST: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway
DIRECTION: James Bobin
Alice Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to the 2010 release Alice in Wonderland, should have been called “Alice in Blunder Land.” From a complete disregard of Lewis Carroll’s book to a convoluted tale of time travel, the sequel falls apart faster than Humpty Dumpty on a trampoline.
The action picks up three years after Alice’s (Mia Wasikowska) previous trip to Wonderland. Her life as the captain of her father’s ship (the most unbelievable part of a movie where anything is supposed to be possible) is threatened. That problem is put aside while she returns to Wonderland to find The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) fading away from grief.
Hatter believes his family is still alive, despite reports they were killed years ago. Alice heads back through time to save Hatter’s family from a dragon fire death. It’s a race against Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) to complete the mission.
The sequel faces many of the same problems as the original film, plus some new stumbles of its own.
It starts with the screenplay by Linda Woolverton, who was also the writer of the first film. Rather than embrace the clever and original writing of Carroll, Woolverton finds bland and safe ways of telling her version of the story.
Carroll’s original book is a masterful tale of Alice and the weirdlings of Wonderland played out as if the world was a giant chess board. His story unfolds through clever wordplay. The muddled script by Woolverton has Alice stealing a time traveling device to focus on the Red Queen’s (Helena Bonham Carter) origin more than Hatter’s woes.
Every character and plot move in the original stories were designed to test the readers mind. Woolverton goes with a conventional linear approach that works in more traditional tales but not here. Wonderland is supposed to be a place where the absurd is the norm. The closest she comes to bringing Carroll’s original story out is a chess set where the pieces come to life.
Wasikowska’s Alice just doesn’t embody the spirit that made Alice such a noted literary character.
One of the saving graces of the original film was that Depp had found a character that suited him to a “tea” - making Hatter both sympathetic and silly. Reducing him to a faded version of himself in this film robs the movie of one of its most interesting characters.
What’s left is Cohen’s failed attempt at playing Time as another quirky characters. Time is only a slight variation of other Cohen characters and lacks originality.
Even the new supporting players are less original, including the mechanical servant for Time that looks like a Tik-Tok prop left over from Disney’s failed Return to Oz.
The best thing about Alice Through the Looking Glass is the special effects that create the colourful world. It is a fanciful blend of exotic landscapes and beautifully crafted characters. - The Fresno Bee
DVDs courtesy:
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha
.
