Review by Kevin Ward

Lance Oppenheim’s ‘Primetime’ takes one of the strangest phenomena of 2000s American television and turns it into something resembling a psychological horror film. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the film revisits the world of ‘To Catch a Predator’, where NBC journalist Chris Hansen confronted men who believed they were arriving to meet underage children. But Oppenheim is less interested in recreating Hansen’s greatest hits than asking what happens when journalism, justice, ego and entertainment become almost impossible to separate.

At the centre of it all is Robert Pattinson, delivering another wonderfully strange performance in a career increasingly defined by them. His Hansen is polished and authoritative whenever a camera switches on, but beneath the television-ready composure sits an anxious, vain and increasingly obsessive man. Pattinson doesn't play him as a straightforward villain, nor does he seem particularly concerned with making him sympathetic. Instead, he turns Hansen into a fascinating contradiction: someone who appears convinced of the righteousness of his mission while becoming intoxicated by the fame, ratings and theatricality surrounding it.

It’s an exaggerated performance, but very deliberate. Pattinson stretches Hansen’s familiar cadence, mannerisms and self-confidence until they become faintly surreal, fitting perfectly into Oppenheim’s distorted vision of early-2000s television. The film itself looks diseased by the era it is recreating: grainy video, oversaturated colours, harsh lighting and frantic editing make the entire production feel as though an old television broadcast has slowly transformed into a nightmare. There is something deeply uncomfortable about watching horrifying subject matter packaged with the rhythms and excitement of entertainment — which, of course, is precisely the point.

The supporting cast prevents ‘Primetime’ from becoming entirely Pattinson’s show. Merritt Wever is excellent as producer Andie Bender, simultaneously helping to control the chaos while remaining part of the machine that profits from it. Skyler Gisondo provides perhaps the film’s most human presence as Dan Plumb, a young actor recruited as a decoy whose initial excitement at appearing on television gradually gives way to discomfort about what he has become involved in. Phoebe Bridgers, making her feature acting debut, also slips naturally into the unsettling environment as fellow decoy Del.

Where ‘Primetime’ occasionally struggles is with just how loudly it delivers its argument. The ethical ugliness of turning attempted sexual crimes into primetime entertainment is apparent almost immediately, and Oppenheim sometimes continues underlining an idea the audience has already understood. The film is exceptionally good at recreating the machinery of sensationalist television; the cameras, producers, police, ratings pressure and personalities all feeding one another, but its examination of the consequences can feel less developed than the extraordinary style surrounding it.

Still, ‘Primetime’ is difficult to shake. Oppenheim has made something deliberately ugly, funny, frightening and excessive about an era when television increasingly discovered that fear and humiliation could be extraordinarily profitable. Nearly two decades later, that idea hardly feels outdated.

And Pattinson is phenomenal. After years spent enthusiastically dismantling the traditional movie-star image he inherited from ‘Twilight’, he once again finds something compelling in a deeply uncomfortable character. His Chris Hansen can be ridiculous one moment and genuinely sinister the next, often without Pattinson visibly changing gears. Whether ‘Primetime’ completely unravels the complicated legacy of ‘To Catch a Predator’ is debatable, but as a portrait of ambition mutating into obsession (and journalism mutating into spectacle) it’s absolutely gripping.

Our score (out of 5 stars): ★★★★☆