PRIMETIME is an Uncomfortable Must-Watch
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A Still of Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen in PRIMETIME | A24
“Effectively Uncomfortable”
PRIMETIME
In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history.
DIRECTOR: Lance Oppenheim
WRITER: Luke Dittrich, Ajon Singh
STARS: Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Matthew Maher and Phoebe Bridgers
Primetime takes us behind the scenes of To Catch a Predator, with Robert Pattinson stepping into the role of Chris Hansen, and clearly having a blast. He doesn't play him as a simple hero or villain but as this incredibly confident, slightly bizarre TV personality who seems to love the attention just as much as he loves being the guy exposing other people. A portrait of a man who needs the performance of justice almost as much as he needs justice itself.
The movie is less interested in the actual predator-catching than in the TV machine surrounding it. Basically, what happens when something genuinely disturbing becomes entertainment? The show is supposed to be about exposing terrible behavior, but there's also an obvious appeal in watching people get humiliated on camera. Primetime spends a lot of time playing around with that uncomfortable contradiction capturing the moment journalism, entertainment, and the internet began collapsing into one another.
Merritt Wever is also fantastic. She brings a grounded, understated energy to the movie that works really well alongside Pattinson’s more flamboyant performance. As Andie Bender, she makes the behind-the-scenes producer feel like a real person rather than just another character in the TV circus. Wever gives her intelligence and ambition a quiet sense of unease, especially as the line between exposing wrongdoing and creating entertainment starts to blur. She doesn’t need to dominate the screen to make an impression, and her naturalistic performance gives the movie some much-needed emotional balance. Even her gum-chewing will stick with you.
A Still of Skyler Gisondo as Dan Plum / Decoy Dan in PRIMETIME | A24
Skyler Gisondo is the biggest surprise. As Decoy Dan, he brings a warmth and nervous energy to the film as his character gets increasingly pulled into the strange world of reality TV, making all the spectacle feel strikingly personal. There’s also something really interesting about the way Gisondo blurs the line between himself and Dan, just as Dan looks up to Hansen, Gisondo is clearly playing opposite Robert Pattinson, creating a fun parallel between actor and character. The fact that Gisondo was given room (or left) to improvise only adds to that feeling, giving Dan’s scenes a spontaneous, slightly unpredictable quality, as if Gisondo is discovering the character at the same time Dan is. As the performance starts to take over, you can feel Dan questioning where the act ends and his own personality begins, and Gisondo makes that transformation both funny and surprisingly unsettling.
Phoebe Bridgers makes a memorable feature debut as Del, a seasoned decoy who’s starting to lose faith in what the whole operation has become. Composer Ari Balouzian’s dark, playful score fits the film’s strange atmosphere, adding an eerie sense of tension as things ramp up. Yet, A24’s marketing feels underwhelming, failing to fully lean into the film’s unique premise instead, capitalizing on the merch culture the film itself questions.
Visually, it has this grimy, almost nightmarish early-2000s TV aesthetic. Multiple camera formats, hidden footage, television clips, and cinematic imagery blur the line between objective reality and the carefully constructed world Hansen presents to his audience. At times it feels more like a horror movie than a true-crime drama. For his narrative debut, Lance Oppenheim draws on his documentary background to capture the strange intricacies and gestures of these characters. He also places actual crew members within the fictional production, giving the sting-house scenes an authentic, documentary-like sense of unfolding in real time. His observational eye gives Primetime an unpredictable quality, showcasing a filmmaker with a distinctive ability to find fascination in the unconventional.
Behind the Scenes look of PRIMETIME with Director Lance Oppenheim and Robert Pattinson | A24
There are a lot of ideas here about fame, morality and our obsession with watching other people’s downfall, and at times the movie pushes those ideas to the point of exaggeration. Some might question the way it breaks down Hansen, especially given that he was taking down predators, but that tension is really the point. The movie never condones the people being exposed; instead, it interrogates our bloodthirsty appetite for watching their takedowns. The absurdity of a television program attempting to package something as serious as child exploitation into a repeatable entertainment format. Even when a rival, more positive show comes along to counter it, the audience’s reaction makes the message pretty clear: the controversy is what people really want to watch.
Overall, Primetime is messy but pretty fascinating. Robert Pattinson goes all-in, the visuals are great, and the whole thing leaves you uneasy when it comes to motivations. The film refuses to offer an easy answer, instead blurring the line between justice and obsession and leaving viewers to question where the pursuit ends and the exploitation begins.
