Director: Lance Oppenheim
Writer: Ajon Singh
Stars: Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers
Synopsis: In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history.
To Catch a Predator is the type of TV show that manages to capture the attention, or at least awareness, of nearly every person on the planet, regardless of their generation. It’s a show that’s struck a chord not just through the inner core of the mid-2000s, but also impacted the deeper, bleak realities we find today within the modern landscapes of both reality TV and journalism. Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime completely revels in the frenzy surrounding the American penchant for deriving entertainment from the darkest of true crime subjects, no matter what line needs to be crossed, and manages to delve into even more unsettling territory than the 2025 documentary Predators scratched the surface of thematically.
Primetime, above all else, is a surreal nightmare that bends the fabric of reality in between what we know as history before throwing us into the deep end of truly unsettling terror. The film acts as a microscope, viewing what was the beginning of an ever-festering corruption of sheer narcissism and never-ending hunger for more growth, disguised as an apparent beacon for justice that false prevalence breathes out, allowing evil to decay even the most naive of souls. There’s a delicate balance between dramatic distortion of events and satirical dark comedy that Primetime strides within its tones, and it only makes its reckoning with what we as an audience are comfortable consuming as entertainment even more powerful to witness. Compounded with an across-the-board impeccable cast, all anchored by an incredible performance from Robert Pattinson, Primetime is a deeply striking picture that will ask you to reckon with the ever-growing sensationalization of our media landscape.
We open in California, 2006, when the show was at its peak, as we get a glimpse into the broad strokes of the show with pedophile hunter Chris Hansen (Pattinson) going over the chat logs of the soon-to-arrive predator (Tony Revolori) and reading over them like they’re lines for a play audition. With the show’s producer, Andie (Merritt Wever), giving him updates and their current adult decoy, Del (Phoebe Bridgers), letting the predator into the sting house, we witness Hansen begin to strike. He slithers around behind the scenes and looks through door cracks before revealing himself to the predator and hidden surveillance cameras from the top of the staircase in a superhero entrance of sorts. In merely its opening, the film showcases the performative sensibilities of Hansen’s persona at hand.
Naturally, due to its killer premise, the show continues its rise in popularity, leading to NBC giving the show a primetime slot, but of course, with more eyes comes more pressure to keep up with the competition, and Hansen and co. are willing to do whatever it takes to keep up with the ratings chase. As newly hired decoy, Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo), hops onto the scene, we witness a relentless drive towards relevance within the cultural zeitgeist and eventually reach the historical point of the show’s infamous episode that led to its end in Murphy, Texas, after discovering a potential predator who is in a position of power.
Primetime will be heavily compared in both its anxiety-inducing atmosphere and dissection of the horrors found within journalism to Nightcrawler, but Oppenheim and his Director of Photography, David Bolen, are able to give the film a visual flavor that sets it apart. Before Primetime, Oppenheim has been mainly a documentary filmmaker, and one of the most transfixing aspects about his filmography that translates here is his ability to perfectly blur the lines between what’s real within the subject matter and what’s not within such immersive photography. Primetime, in comparison, occupies the same void but adds its own blur of the conflicting theatricality of To Catch a Predator and reality TV within the darker elements that erode each of these characters as people, and this is only exemplified by the hazy cinematography.
Every image in the film has such a striking presence. Hues of oversaturated color radiate through every frame, compounded side-by-side with scrappier surveillance, camcorder footage, and ultra-intense close-ups used within riveting conversational sequences. It’s all a visual experience that perfectly encapsulates the vibe and media frenzy of the 2000s, which lends itself well when the film emulates a more chilling atmosphere but surprisingly, also when it leans into the satirical aspects of its comedy as well. There are occasional moments where the movie can lose its grip the tiniest bit on the tonal inflections of its dark comedy, but it’s mostly pulled off in such an engrossing way that it never deters from the dark jabs at its own absurdity or the still percolating grimy nature that lies at the center of it all.
Hansen himself is portrayed with such insane range by Pattinson that he, alongside what’s on the page in Ajon Singh’s screenplay, truly probes into the psyche of Hansen and the idea of his influences as an ever-present figure in the mediascape, even to this day. A simple impression or imitation of the Hansen persona would be one thing, but Pattinson captures so much of the interiority of a man whose humanity has been completely distorted by his chase for fame, no matter what line he has to cross in doing so. Even when Pattinson is at his most unsettling or unhinged, you can always see a sliver of insecure desperation within him for relevance and how these qualities have impacted the world of what networks have sought after in dreams of success.
The rest of the cast is equally exceptional, with Merritt Wever and Phoebe Bridgers bringing deeper shades to their characters, but Skyler Gisondo stands out as one of the main reasons the film’s core remains intact. Gisondo’s Daniel is essentially one of the only truly naive characters here in the midst of the hypocritical corruption that lies at the heart of the acting dreams he aspires to. There are specific sequences where Daniel is just thrust into the circus and isn’t prepared for what lies at the heart of entertainment within this industry that breaks your heart silently amidst all the uneasiness, and Gisondo captures that silent sadness so eloquently. There’s a scene he and Pattinson share when Daniel isn’t sure of his purpose in the show, and Hansen transports him through his mind to a time to his apparent first beginning in hunting down predators, saying that they are cleansing the world of an ancient evil. The sequence likely emphasizes the surreal eeriness of the visuals and the central idea of Hansen as a figure of performative vigilante justice.
“What would have happened if I wasn’t here?” A question that has a double meaning in Primetime, as, of course, it’s the question that Hansen asks his prey while reprimanding them, but it also acts as a catalyst for the questions the film asks itself. Does what this show does truly do justice considering the methods it uses, or is it something darker making it a predator in a different way? Can there truly be justice when it’s commercialized to this scale? These questions are at the bedrock of Primetime, and Oppenheim transforms them into a hyper-satirical fever dream that is relentlessly unnerving. A full reckoning of the bleakness surrounding our ever-growing appetite for sensationalized entertainment in the media landscape, both then and now.
