Primetime

I'm not really much of a fan of R Patz, but this might be his best effort since "The Lighthouse" (2019). Here, he's a real-life television host who fronts a show that exposes older men who have a penchant for young teens. These men are entrapped by an actor on social media and then lured to an home where they are confronted by Chris Hansen before being surrendered to the authorities. One problem for the show is that their (not always very convincing) decoys tend to find the whole experience fairly traumatic and so don't tend to stick around for long. Perhaps the latest "Dan" (Skyler Gisondo) might endure? Well at the insistence of the producer Andie (Merritt Wever), Hansen goes on a bit of a charm offensive with him and that could end up proving crucial as the show's bosses are falling out of love with their newly promoted primetime concept and he needs to land a big catch else they...

What I learned from Primetime is that catching child predators is "right wing" and "egotistical" and "bad." Which about sums up why all the heavily leftwing political injections makes movies suck. Sort of lost the plot when you spend an entire movie making the point that the dude who was CATCHING CHILD PREDATORS was WORSE than the actual child predators. Seriously, Hollywood, you lost the plot and we don't think you're ever going to find it again.

It’s been said that we often become what we concentrate upon. That’s ironic, because frequently this results in the creation of that which we’re purposely trying to avoid. And, in this third feature outing from director Lance Oppenheim, that’s precisely what happens to its high-profile protagonist, investigative journalist Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson). In this fact-based satire, the film follows the ascendancy of the reporter on the tabloid TV series *Dateline NBC*, specifically through his work on the show’s *To Catch a Predator* segment (2004-2007) in which he covered stories designed to expose the exploits of pedophiles. Working in conjunction with the website Perverted-Justice, Hansen, his producer (Merritt Wever), and a pair of predator bait decoy actors (Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers) orchestrated sting operations aimed at capturing their unsuspecting prey in the act on...

A true-crime story this inherently bizarre should not require much embellishment, yet *Primetime* spends so much energy dressing itself up that the actual story gets buried underneath the filmmaking. What could have been a sharp, uncomfortable examination of television, celebrity, and the ethics of true crime instead becomes a frustratingly uneven film that mistakes stylistic excess for substance. Robert Pattinson gives a pretty good performance as Chris Hansen, bringing enough conviction to make the central figure compelling even when the screenplay does not. The supporting cast is strong as well. Skyler Gisondo makes an impression as the adult decoy pretending to be an underage boy, while Merritt Wever brings welcome dimension as the show’s producer. There are also genuinely interesting ideas scattered throughout the film, particularly in its examination of how media can commoditize...