Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Weekend Watch is here for you. Every Friday we’re going to recommend the best of what’s new to rent on VOD or stream for free. It’s your weekend; allow us to make it better.
What to Watch on VOD This Weekend
It came and went in theaters this summer without a whole lot of fanfare, but the Millennial AF adventure drama Nerve deserves to have a robust second life on streaming. While far from a perfect movie, it’s an incredibly watchable one, with Emma Roberts and Dave Franco at their most charming as a pair of New York City teens hooked on the latest evolution in gaming/social media/youthful narcissism. Nerve (the game within the film) is part scavenger hunt, part daredevil display, part reality series borrowed from dystopian movies like The Running Man but taking place in the present day: you sign up to either be a Player or a Watcher. The Watchers pony up cash to watch the Players participate in an escalating series of dares that range from shoplifting to kissing a stranger. The more the Players do, the more money they win. And the more the Watchers get hooked on the Players, the more they want to dictate the action.
Franco is a Player, while Roberts starts off as a Watcher before getting goaded into playing by her best friend (played by The Leftovers‘ Emily Meade, who is either a new-school Mena Suvari or an American Juno Temple, I can’t decide). This turns into a One Crazy Night movie through the streets of New York, as the increasingly dangerous dares begin to take on a sinister edge. By the end, the wheels come off — this is definitely the kind of movie that is more fun the less it focuses on the plot — but when it’s in the pure id of its own concept, it is propulsive fun. It’s the kind of movie where Samira Wiley shows up as a hacker (to the applause of the live audience I saw it with). It’s the kind of movie where you walk out of it going “You know, that Machine Gun Kelly is maybe one of our most exciting younger actors?) It’s the kind of movie where Dave Franco takes his clothes off and it’s good.
For a while there, Nerve is actually kind of wise about how a quasi-dystopian real-time first-person game like Nerve would actually work. It eventually spins off into implausibility, but the way it shows casual observers’ reactions to the players feels very right. It’s a fun, dumb movie that isn’t even really that dumb. Throw in Dave Franco’s newly developed chest and you’re in for a good time.
You can rent or buy Nerve on Amazon Video and iTunes.
What to Stream This Weekend
Now that Leonardo DiCaprio has finally won his Academy Award, he is free to turn hie eye towards another proud cause: saving the environment. DiCaprio’s efforts to rally support to combat climate change have been well known for years now. With Before the Flood, the new documentary directed by Fisher Stevens and starring Leo himself, DiCaprio is talking up climate change at the highest levels, from the United Nations to President Obama. It’s easy to see this as a vanity project, but the urgency of the climate change problem feels like sufficient motivation to pull out all the stops.
If nothing else, watch Before the Flood for the breathtaking cinematography of all sorts of natural wonders, spoiled and unspoiled. It paints the picture of a world well worth trying to save.
