'Primetime' Review
Release Date: 09/25/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Biography. Crime. Drama. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: A24.
The Verdict: A Must-See
People just want to put on a show. They probably also want a bit of money for that, but the most alluring part of being in front of the camera is the adulation. There are many different ways to put on a show. Let’s use a traditional broadcast series like ABC’s Lost as an example. The reason I picked that two-decade-old science-fiction phenomenon at the start of this review will make more sense soon. Lost entertains with explosions, drama, mystery, romance, all the kind of spectacle and storytelling that makes us love watching TV and movies. That’s the most traditional way to get an audience’s attention. But as the history of the media has shown us, particularly in recent years, traditional entertainment, even moral entertainment, is not always the way to go.
To Catch a Predator is one of the most unorthodox pieces of “entertainment” ever broadcast on mainstream television. The Dateline NBC program blended reality TV with a news bulletin. By turning the trap on pedophiles using chatrooms as a way to pick up vulnerable teens, the show has become the subject of much regretful controversy since its smash-hit years. Predator was very much the direct product of a specifically supercharged American psychosis, a post 9/11 fervor where we wanted the bad guys, no matter their alleged crime, tried and shamed in the court of public opinion. Primetime, the new A24 film where Robert Pattinson slips into the skin of an exaggerated version of Predator host Chris Hansen, captures those scummy feelings of retrospective regret immensely well. It is one of the best movies about the ethics of showmanship, the decisions made to achieve fame, and the false morality that people use to convince themselves that their version of justice is mightier than the law itself.
Director Lance Oppenheim, moving from fascinating documentaries (Some Kind of Heaven, Spermworld) to feature filmmaking, casts Chris Hansen as a cross between Jake Gyllenhaal’s insidious Nightcrawler videographer and P.T. Barnum. He’s a showman who will do anything to be #1, particularly when top exec Jeff Zucker (playing himself) puts his show up against Lost in the cushy Wednesday night slot. Hansen seems to truly believe that the work he’s doing is making the world a better place, or at least that’s what he tells himself when he’s practicing his line readings in the mirror. Though he is far from the best husband to his fed-up wife (Anna Faris in a brief but strong performance), he uses his brief role as a father to two young boys to justify his primal desires.
Pattinson’s work in this movie is the latest in a long line of chameleonic performances. He has clearly become one of the most compelling actors of his generation, and this is another notch on the belt. He plays Hansen like a guy who is not acting, despite his protests that he’s NEVER acting (try saying that five times fast). The characterization in Ajoin Singh’s script is a bit vague on specifics, but strong on intention. It never really lets you know who Hansen is, which must’ve felt weird for a director who's spent his career documenting the stories of real-life people. But the treatment and tone of the movie do a superb job matching the star's almost extraterrestrial oddities.
The rest of the movie is populated by leeches, people sucking all the righteousness out of the work they’re doing. Merritt Wever is particularly excellent as Hansen’s enabling producer. Despite her loose moral compass, she looks like Mother Mary compared to Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher), the man whose vigilante organization actually helps Hansen and his production identify the predators.
Primetime as a movie is obviously skeptical of any justification for the show's premise, but it smartly never lets Hansen himself make that realization. That’s where a character like Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo) comes in handy. Dan is an aspiring musical actor, a mid-20s man with a fresh face, hired by Predator as the new decoy to lure these men into a trap. What starts as an acting opportunity for Dan, who is based on a real guy in glancing ways, becomes a genuinely traumatic and toxic situation, a true test of what it is really worth for him to achieve success and get his SAG card. As one friend bitingly tells him over the phone, “You were in, like, 0.0% of that segment.”
Gisondo is awesome in a tricky role, and his stock continues to climb as an actor who uses his specific skill set well. Primetime is an impeccably cast movie, as casting directors Francine Maisler and Molly Rose make unexpected choices that pay off. Case in point, music star Phoebe Bridgers does strong work as a sexually ambiguous, more in-control decoy. Many other familiar faces appear sparingly but effectively, from Bookeem Woodbine as a particularly eager sheriff to Tony Revolori as the Iraqi veteran targeted in the film’s utterly mesmerizing opening sequence.
In this narrative feature debut, Oppenheim immediately proves himself an intentional, in-control visual filmmaker. The 1:50:1 aspect ratio makes the film feel like a relic of its mid-2000s, standard-definition era. The early scenes, during Predator’s rise to prominence, have an oversaturated look, as cinematographer David Bolen evokes the artificiality of the Americana lifestyle with overexposed background lighting that feels dreamlike and angelic. The style of those early scenes makes the movie look as phony as the personalityless suburban homes that become the base for Hansen’s traps. The film gets darker as it progresses, and the camera gets tighter and tighter. Oppenheim makes some of the most beautiful people in the world look downright demonic. There’s certainly nothing subtle about it, and that approach admittedly feels a bit obvious at times, though never less than utterly provocative.
You certainly can understand why the real Chris Hansen is peeved with Primetime, though his attempts to do anything about it will almost certainly fall on deaf ears. Unfortunately for him, Oppenheim and Pattinson have created something that, whether you love it or hate it (and I loved it), is unforgettable. This is a slimy movie that makes you feel bad for engaging with it, but then smartly passes off the blame to the characters themselves. You feel both complicit in their decisions and their selfishness, but you also can’t help but root for them. That’s a rare ability in filmmaking, and one that doesn’t often come from a debut feature, but Oppenheim clearly understands human nature and what we want to watch — whether it’s right or wrong, ratings will not be damned.
Where to Watch:
