REEL | 'Primetime' – Robert Pattinson Catches the Real 'Predator'

"You see how this looks, right?"

A24 / Elevation Pictures

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, known for his artful explorations of strange American subcultures, makes his narrative feature debut by directing Primetime, stylishly dramatizing the real-life controversy surrounding the eventual downfall of the wildly popular but highly problematic mid-2000s Dateline NBC news program To Catch a Predator, as reported on by journalist Luke Dittrich's 2007 Esquire article, "Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die."

Starring an absolutely unleashed Robert Pattinson as the slimy but self-righteous host Chris Hansen ("The Predator Hunter"), who's still at the same self-important schtick on his own TruBlu Streaming Network, the film recounts both sides of exposing potential child abusers who have not actually committed any crime (yet) while being essentially entrapped for entertainment and public shaming purposes. His unhinged, sleazy performance is a live wire of bombastic energy, letting it totally rip without any real constraints.

Co-starring Merritt Wever as his loyal producer, Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers as adult-aged teen decoys, and Anna Faris in an extended cameo as Hansen's often-ignored first wife, the ensemble fleshes out the various production and off-camera roles of those involved in exposing these "predators" in the swarmy television sting of dumb and disturbed men seeking underage companionship or possibly far worse.



Filmed in a hyper-saturated but period-appropriate 2000s-era CRT television gloss in the boxy 4:3 Academy aspect ratio, first-time screenwriter Ajon Singh's unsettling script lays bare the characters' obsessive, voyeuristic fixation on turning fact and fiction into televised fame. It's another cautionary tale of exploitation and greed for ratings' sake under the guise of public safety and protection.

Primetime takes an audaciously bleak but dynamic approach to examining the eccentricities of twisted human morality in a post-9/11 world. It's a must-watch media satire for those obsessed with the often exploitative and misleading true-crime genre of entertainment media, judging others with a weak but easy sense of moral high ground.

And if you have not already seen director David Osit's excellent 2025 documentary, Predators, covering the same material in non-fiction form, it's an exceptional and sober examination of our collective obsession with televising rogue justice that features Hansen himself in a gripping interview defending his dubious (at best) actions and life's work persecuting these troubled men in public.


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