The Nerve List
Ratings: 2/5
Duration: 102 Minutes
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Director: Michelle Mower
Writer: Ariadne Shaffer
Producer: Anna Margarita Albelo
Music: Jordan Coffing
Cinematography: Janine Sides
Released On: 11 December 2020
Star Cast: Fivel Stewart, Keiko Agena, Andrew Kai, Brenna D'Amico, Anna Grace Barlow, Matt Corboy, Ryan Cargill
Plot: This is a very sweet and pure story about the friendship between Eva (played by Fivel Stewart) and Liz (played by Brenna D’Amico) who are best friends. They are students at a Los Angeles high school. They get good grades and are total straight arrows and are like ideal daughters for every parent. Eva, a budding cartoonist, is cajoled into a run for student body president. Given their academic performance, top colleges are no doubt on the radar. In other words, they are a teacher’s dream.
Unlike typical teens, Eva and Liz don’t make a habit of breaking rules, ever. That is just not what they do. For breaking rules is a thing of Vicky and Veronica. Vicky and Veronica are for, imaginary alter egos who do all the things that Eva and Liz would never do. They do the things on Eva and Liz’s ‘never list’ which are like — stealing a car! getting a tattoo! being a rock star! getting into a fight! — and it is through V&V that they can be vicarious bad girls.
But, under the heading of the old adage ‘life is what happens when you’re making other plans’. The world of Eva shatters one fine day when Liz suddenly dies, leaving her bereft and adrift. Poor Eva who has held the hand of her best friend for years is suddenly left to face this mean world all by herself. So, guess what? Eva decides being good doesn’t really get you anywhere. Eva decides to put their never list into action.
She steals a car - She gets a tattoo – To top it all she flunks the exams. This worries everyone in Eva’s close circle but more so her parents. The relationship between Eva and her parents — mom Jennifer (played by Keiko Agena) and dad Paul (played by Matt Corboy) — rings with authenticity as they feel their daughter slipping away from them. Jennifer, who otherwise is strong as a woman, sees all of her parental plans being destroyed.
At the outset, Eva’s journey on this Never List leads her to romance and adventure, but as the list progresses, her actions begin threatening the very foundations of her carefully planned teenage life and even her own future.
Will Eva ever go back to be that old ideal daughter? Will she cope up with the loss of her best friends? The answer to these questions is revealed in the movie.
Review: Houston director Michelle Mower, working from a script by Ariadne Shaffer, has made a sweetly serious film about friendship, trauma and not letting yourself get lost.
The movie is overall built on the soft issue of a loss, and how young blood takes its own course to live through it.
There is nothing very extraordinary about the storyline or the script or the direction. But most definitely, the movie is likely to strike a chord with teens. The climax of the movie also holds no surprise, and it is pretty predictable and flat!
