Primetime knows exactly how to draw the viewer into its based-on-true-events tale: The movie opens with a re-enactment of a classic To Catch a Predator setup, in which a man, following multiple online conversations with someone he thought was a very young person, enters a house filled with hidden cameras, believing that he’s about to have sex with a minor. Instead, out comes Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson), with some hard questions about what the man is doing there, and what he expects to happen next.
Well, to be strictly accurate about things, the movie truly opens with a close-up on Pattinson, rehearsing his lines and preparing for his moment in the spotlight. He’s finding his rhythm, exploring just the right delivery for his takedown of yet another potential pedophile. Despite his almost religious belief that he’s doing important work with the show, it’s a moment that establishes Chris not as a journalist but as a performer. His stage isn’t just anonymous suburban homes, with cookies cooling on the counter. It’s the whole world.
Directed by Lance Oppenheim and written by Ajon Singh, Primetime compresses a number of real-life events into a tight timeframe, as Chris and his loyal producer Andie (Merritt Wever) find out from NBC president Jeff Zucker (playing himself) that their show’s popularity is being rewarded with a new timeslot: It’s going to be scheduled against 2006 broadcast TV juggernaut Lost, which originally aired on ABC. Thus, the pressure is on to step things up — instead of trapping anonymous men who tend to fit a certain type, Chris wants to find more high-profile targets.
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As documented by the movie’s official source material, the 2007 Esquire article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die”, this resulted in tragic consequences. But before then, we get an inner look at Chris and Andie’s operation, with newly hired decoy Dan (Skyler Gisondo) thrust into the middle of a sting on his first day that involves an exposed penis and whipped cream. It’s a shocking experience for him, but soon he’s fully embraced the mission of the show, fully indoctrinated into Chris’s quest.
Dan’s not the only decoy working on the production, but he’s a pure actor who enjoys studying old episodes of Inside the Actor’s Studio for insight into the craft. Meanwhile, the other decoy, Del (Phoebe Bridgers), is the only one who’s worked with actual victims of sexual abuse. Del’s able to play both a pre-teen girl and a pre-teen boy during these stings, but has serious moral qualms about the commercialization of the show, and becomes the moral center of Primetime — as much as such a thing is allowed.
Using a cinematography style involving two dozen different camera styles, Primetime captures the hazy low-fi neon vibe of 2006, all grain and oversaturated colors — a time before YouTube, when the Iraq war raged overseas and broadcast TV still dominated pop culture, even if the audience was proving to be more engaged by crass reality fare than big-budget scripted dramas. Oppenheim comes from the world of documentaries, and he brings a similarly loose approach to the filmmaking here, making strong visual choices throughout even as he largely stays out of the way of a top-notch cast.
Primetime (A24)
Pattinson’s take on Chris Hansen is magnetic yet ruthless on a level you can’t anticipate, as if Hansen used the cursed monkey’s paw to wish that a star of this caliber would one day play him in a movie. All of the The Batman star’s choices, from his too-studied mannerisms to a genuine discomfort with real human emotion, feel downright sociopathic; he never tries to shove a kitten into an ATM, but it’s a performance that otherwise bears a lot of resemblance to Christian Bale’s work in American Psycho, just slightly dialed down. (No wonder the real-life Hansen is considering legal action.)
This contrasts elegantly with Merritt Wever’s signature low-key delivery as Andie, who exists in a permanent state of trying to keep the show on track, knowing her hard work will never be appreciated by the men around her. Despite not having children herself (a fact Chris flings in her face at one point), Andie is continually thrust into a maternal role on set, spending a lot of time gently coaxing her stars to perform and literally cleaning up after her crew once production is done. Working on To Catch a Predator has done something to her, and with a single look, Wever reveals the cost to Andie’s soul.
Skyler Gisondo also makes a huge impression as a young man who doesn’t fully understand the scope of his big break at first, and maybe lets it break him by the end. And it’s almost impossible to believe that this is Phoebe Bridgers’ first serious acting role, as she’s a total natural on screen. Per the press notes, she was roommates with Oppenheim in Los Angeles when they were both teenagers, but was only persuaded to take on the role after a test shoot as the character. Thank god she did, as she’s expressive enough in her limited screen time, a constant reminder that real lives are involved here.
Primetime isn’t the best film breakdown of the To Catch a Predator phenomenon — for the ultimate examination of the show’s impact on society, the documentary Predators (streaming on Paramount+) is a must-see, especially the closing act’s sit-down with the real Hansen. However, the maximalism of Oppenheim’s direction and Pattinson’s performance capture the ruthlessness of the time, an era of transition where basic human decency could get lost in the mix. As seen on TV.
Primetime debuts in theaters on Friday, September 25th. Watch the latest trailer below.
