Audiences gain a chilling central performance from Robert Pattinson, even as Primetime fails to translate that energy into a consistently compelling film. At the Venice Film Festival Pattinson committed fully to an uncanny embodiment of Chris Hansen, from a strained, eerie vocal tone to a disciplined stillness that keeps viewers riveted despite the movie’s uneven shape.
Director Lance Oppenheim, better known for documentary work including the HBO series Ren Faire, chose the early 2000s sting show To Catch a Predator as the subject of his first narrative feature. The original Dateline NBC segment, which ran between 2004 and 2007, staged online stings using older actors posing as minors, then confronted suspects on camera and handed them to law enforcement. That morally fraught, voyeuristic formula is the engine Primetime tries to interrogate, while also dramatizing internal pressures as the program seeks a larger audience.
Within the film’s storyline Hansen and his producer, played by Merritt Wever, are preparing for a move into the 9 p.m. slot, which raises stakes and demands more sensational stories. The operation’s decoys include Phoebe Bridgers, making her formal acting debut and fresh off her album Lost Weekend, and Skyler Gisondo, whose new recruit is unnerved by the show’s loose tactics. These performances amplify the show-within-a-show tension, and Pattinson’s choices make Hansen feel both familiar and strange.
Primetime is provocative and sometimes gripping, but it loses traction. Anna Faris is relegated to a small, underused role as Hansen’s wife, and Wever’s subplot never resolves. The film leans on visualizations and reenactments that rarely add clarity, and a messy, unfocused final act undercuts what had been tense build-up. The denouement carries heat, but the concluding sequence wraps too quickly to deliver full catharsis.
Even so, Primetime is worth seeing as a showcase for what Pattinson continues to attempt on screen. The film also invites comparison with David Osit’s 2025 documentary Predators, which suggests the real-life story may remain more baffling than any dramatization. Next up for Pattinson, audiences can look forward to his white-haired, villainous turn in Dune: Part Three.
