This review may contain spoilers!
Primetime is a thriller biopic documenting the heyday of the reality TV show 'To Catch a Predator', starring Chris Hansen.
This is a pretty unflinching descent into the obscene, a world where the worst kind of crimes are caught and privatised for entertainment. At its core, Primetime points out that a production like this, in which a TV show had the means to capture sexual predators in real time, staggers belief. The whole conceit is that horrible sex offenders get catfished by the show, Chris Hansen shows up, reads them the riot act and then they are subsequently arrested. Watching the film posit the idea of responsibility here is interesting in two ways, the one avenue I felt was really well discussed was that these arrests and crimes were treated as entertainment spectacles. The film was constantly trying to up the ante, and the motivation was more around that 'primetime' slot for those on the show than it was to do with the justice they were delivering. There's a scene in which one of the Decoys (Phoebe Bridgers) nearly walks off the show when their official merch page starts selling thongs. It is this internal conflict the existence of the show generates that really had me hooked.
Where I think what this film had to say, and what I personally felt as a viewer diverged was on the subject of the morality of 'To Catch a Predator'. This film really graphically reminds you that these individuals are quite twisted and that their intention is to find underage people online and engage them in sex. It's pretty reprehensible stuff; there's a character who suggests to Hansen in the film that surely he would want to "bleed them". To which Chris suggests that what they do is perhaps worse. Which is quite a powerful and profound moment if the film is right there along with you, but this is a film so ready to talk every possible point of view that you can't help but feel a little disappointed with this thing thematically. There are a lot of scenes here that make you wonder why the film is trying to cast child predators in a more sympathetic light. When a District Attorney kills himself, and the show is subsequently ended, the only person painted in a damning light is Hansen and his producer. As if someone in an extreme position of power exploiting children should not feel the consequences of their own actions. Even earlier in the feature, when Chris Hansen is really falling prey to his ambition, we get this moment in which the child predator they 'catch' is a physically disabled man. The film plays this as uncomfortable or like a low point for the show, but knowing the crime this individual intended to commit didn't exactly make me want to feel the sympathy that the narrative was pushing so hard here.
Lance Oppenheim directs a film that feels positively psychedelic at times. Primetime is brimming with inventive frames that expose characters' internal struggle without needing a hint of dialogue to back it up. The way this whole thing is grounded in the age of 2000s TV while also feeling like it's on some kind of visual rollercoaster is quite impressive. I love how this movie was paced; everything felt really fluid and evenly paced. There is a big part of me that could not gel with just how oversaturated most shots had to be; that was where something really well caught could lose some appeal. The score also didn't really gel with me that much; it was a bit too lively and cartoonish for the subject matter at hand, although Phoebe Bridgers' 'On Video' rounding this thing out hit the right note.
A lot of what works for this film is Robert Pattinson playing Chris Hansen as this absolutely manic, insecure guy. This take on Hansen is a man who is fuelled by nothing more than his work; something that he treats as an almost higher calling. Pattinson taking Hansen and turning him into this damning figure, this perfectionist who is entirely relentless, makes Primetime the feat that it is. Although Pattinson is not the only performer taking a big swing here. Skyler Gisondo has found what might possibly be his best role to date in Dan Plum. Dan's storyline really exposed the long-lasting damage working on this show had to the cast and crew who were so wrapped up in it. Merritt Wever also deserves a shoutout for her incredible work battling it against Pattinson as his producer. While I had complicated feelings about this portrayal, Alex Winter actually took Bill Conradt to a very human place.
There were some performances that felt a bit more adrift here. Matthew Maher was playing Xavier Von Erck, who hunted the predators online for the show. I felt like Maher was in that part to present a sort of bumbling doofus, an eccentric oddball that was weirdly positioned to elicit laughter. Beyond Winter, none of the key predator performances mattered much. Revolori's intro scene could have been played by anyone, and Bob Ari's was a moral low for the film. Eric Rahill didn't really achieve anything as Dan's friend; he certainly didn't make Dan a more interesting character by having a presence. Casting Anna Faris as Pattinson's wife felt like one of the worst casting decisions here. Even odd Hollywood cameos like Jeff Zucker playing himself or filmmakers playing some of the captured predators really muddy what this film is trying to achieve.
A highly stylistic venture that really grapples with its own moral compass. I would give Primetime a 7/10.
