From the start of Lance Oppenheim’s unnerving narrative feature debut Primetime, Robert Pattinson is immersed in his character’s obsessive mind. As TV-journalist-turned-host Chris Hansen, he’s introduced whispering to himself; reading and rehearsing the lines of a dirty chat log that he and his team are about to use in a trap for his television show. They are minutes away from confronting a man (Tony Revolori) about his inappropriate messages to a supposed teenager, one who was actually a member of the To Catch A Predator squad, committed to unmasking men like this. Hansen also believes in this cause to an extent, but not as much as he believes in himself as a kind of crusader in the court of public opinion, roiling up his audience with an extravagant production for maximum ratings—and unintended consequences. He’s the ringleader, To Catch A Predator is his circus, and it’s about to go big.
The wild ride that follows is a fascinating look at the media, its manipulation, and the puppetmasters behind it. Primetime critiques how a show that pitches itself as a kind of public good can be exploitative entertainment, slotted between Emmy-winning dramas and sitcoms if that’s where the viewers were. And in 2006, there were plenty watching, tuning in week after week to see men who talked dirty to minors wander into a stranger’s kitchen and find a camera crew. At their command is Pattinson’s version of Hansen, an ambitious journalist who demands respect but loses it through his hubris. The many people around him who, either because they believe in keeping kids safe or in the power of the almighty ratings, enable Hansen to go after his biggest mark yet: a high-profile predator. Like Captain Ahab hunting Moby Dick, Hansen becomes obsessed with bringing down his white whale, dragging everyone down with him in the process.
With a resume that includes creative documentaries like Some Kind Of Heaven, Spermworld, and Ren Faire, Oppenheim’s non-traditional approach serves Primetime well, making the engrossing drama a descent into Hansen’s madness. In many of his documentaries, Oppenheim’s camera finds a lonely figure (typically a man) who has mythologized his greatness in the world to such an extent that he loses touch with reality, and sometimes his own humanity. Oppenheim transports his audience into these delusional bubbles, allowing the people in the film to play out their own fantasies as willing participants.
Now in the narrative fiction space, Oppenheim further explores the psyche of man who thought he could be TV’s primetime king, using both the broadcast tech of the early aughts and dreamy expressionist imagery to build him up and tear him down. Oppenheim has also reassembled a number of his longtime collaborators, including cinematographer David Bolen—who gives Primetime its retro sheen with deeply saturated colors—composer Ari Balouzian, and editor Daniel Garber, building on the unique sensorial approach of their films with even greater finesse.
Oppenheim finds an equally dedicated collaborator in Pattinson, who takes to Hansen’s complicated, flawed presence with curiosity and pleasure. When Hansen thinks he’s on top of the world, Pattinson’s like an uncaged lion, untouchable, untethered, and focused only on his prey. But that focus leaves him vulnerable when things don’t go his way, and he cracks under the pressure, exposing the insecurities of a man who once thought himself a god. He can be pathetic and manipulative, all in the same breath, and it’s impressive to watch Pattinson stretch his performance, beyond easily the character’s memed quirks and funny voice, into something much more sinister.
While Pattinson holds court, those gathered around him are equally as fascinating to watch. Skyler Gisondo plays Dan, a struggling actor-turned-decoy who becomes one of the few moral weather vanes in Primetime. But even he is caught in the bluster of Hansen’s influence as the host begrudgingly takes him under his paternal wing. As Hansen becomes increasingly obsessed with his target, he essentially coerces Dan to continue to bait men to stumble onto their show; as the season goes on, Dan feels conflicted as he realizes this farce is less about the show’s stated mission and more about Hansen’s ego. Phoebe Bridgers also gives a surprising turn as Dan’s female counterpart on the show, raising concerns whenever the production runs too far afoul of their intentions. But it’s Merritt Wever who matches Pattinson beat for beat around a lack of moral feeling. As Andie, the show’s executive producer, Wever’s cold and calculating, keeping the wheels of To Catch A Predator rolling even when her star host crashes out. Andie’s the flustered mother figure on set, supervising and soothing egos, and salvaging the show from certain disaster many times over. Wever makes her character one of the most sympathetic yet chilling examples of a hands-on producer in film history, sometimes taking control of the scene directly from Hansen, revealing herself as the show’s real ruler.
Like Ace In The Hole and Nightcrawler, Primetime is a look at what happens when journalists trade their soul for a scoop, watching as their bloodhound instinct causes them to lose sight of the real story and the people at its center. Ajon Singh’s script is already so rich in character and drama that a recurring sidebar about how Hansen’s obsession began with a story he worked on early in his career feels a bit superfluous, but it’s all in service of showing the character’s warped ambitions. Swimming in the milieu of the early aughts culture, from the needle drop of Black Eyed Peas’ “London Bridge” and the pings of AIM chats, Oppenheim transports his viewers back to a strange time in TV history, when public ridicule made for appointment television. In indicting the ego-driven hands behind To Catch A Predator, Oppenheim revisits the recent past with a new lens, examining the kind of people who would convince themselves that what they were doing was righteous, and challenging his audience to watch a little closer.
Director: Lance Oppenheim
Writer: Ajon Singh
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, Alex Winter, Tony Revolori, Anna Faris, Jonathan Lipnicki
Release Date: September 25, 2026
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