Are you a watcher or a player? That's the question repeatedly posed in Nerve, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's teen thriller, released in the UK this week. It's asked of the film's main characters – two young people trapped in a game of dare – but it's also a question posed to the audience, and particularly to a generation that is becoming increasingly comfortable with both voyeurism and risk.

It's 2020, and Emma Roberts is Vee, a nervous high school senior with low self-esteem and a clingy mom. Spurred on by her coolest-girl-in-school best friend Sydney, Vee signs up for Nerve, a secret, communally-run online game where 'Watchers' pay to watch and set 'Players' outrageous dares for cash. They start innocuously enough, so Vee takes a deep breath and agrees to kiss a stranger for five seconds. That stranger turns out to be Ian (Dave Franco), another Player, and soon the watching community have asked them to team up for mutual dares.

For while it's all fun and games, as Vee slowly begins to emerge from her shell and Ian keeps leading her through increasingly adrenaline-charged challenges with puppy dog eyes. But of course, not all is quite as it seems, and as the watching mob begins to demand more and more intense dares from the pair, Vee suddenly finds herself trapped way over her head, and in serious danger.

The film couldn't feel more timely or culturally relevant if it tried. Considering it's based on Jeanne Ryan's 2012 novel, the timing of its release in the middle of the Pokémon Go phenomenon, which has teenagers everywhere walking the streets playing a mobile-phone-based game, is nothing short of eerie. Smartphones and online communities are central to Nerve, and it creates a very accurate picture of how digital avatars and mob mentalities can lead to an abdication of personal responsibility. In a world where people will make fools of themselves and take dangerous risks in order to win online fandom and those coveted 'likes', the watching millions can believe that they have no responsibility for enabling and dysfunction or disaster that might ensue, precisely because they hide behind an online alias. Most simply that's seen in sites like Twitter, where normally mild-mannered users become vicious bullies from behind the safety of an avatar.

Thanks to the gives-too-much-away trailer – presumably created by an ironically risk-averse studio – I went in with fairly low expectations. But in fact, aside from a bit of clumsy show from Juliette Lewis as Vee's mum, Nerve does a pretty much perfect job of what it's trying to achieve. Jessica Sharzer's tight script helps, as do solid performances from the leads. Where the film really dazzles though is in its unexpectedly spectacular direction. Innovative camera work constantly surprises, while a vivid use of a neon theme helps Joost and Schulman to show a very modern cinematic view of New York that's alternately gritty and gorgeous.

It also includes one or two really well-executed action set pieces, including a motorcycle sequence that is absolutely edge of your seat thrilling, in a way that the recent Jason Bourne's much-heralded car chase (which probably cost 100 times as much), never quite managed to be. And it's a film that really understands its audience and the digital world that they inhabit. Nerve is packed with knowing nods to modern tech, especially in the clever intro which uses Vee's online activity and profiles to set up her character. Not only does it demonstrate a knowledge of what young people do online, it also seems to understand why they behave as they do, and that's what really elevates the film.

For youth workers it's a gift: a great way in to talking about how we navigate the world of avatars, cyber-bullies and online behaviour. It's a fantastic opportunity to help young people consider the consequences of our online actions, and of developing a split online/offline personality. The 15 certificate – awarded because the dangerous behaviours shown might be replicated by a younger audience – shouldn't put you off; a bit of bad language aside, this is definitely one for those who work with teenagers to engage with.

Most critics have been fairly sniffy about Nerve, writing it off as a derivative teen movie; I think it's much smarter than that. In fact, I'm going to take risk of my own and say that while it will be a hit with its intended audience, the film deserves to find a wider one. It's one of the most consistently enjoyable and thoughtful films I've seen this year, and indeed one of the best. This is what deserves to go viral then: Nerve is a brilliant movie that like so many of the games, apps and phenomena in the Brave New World it documents, is unheralded, and has seemingly come from nowhere. I think you should choose to be a watcher.

Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders.