What are critics saying about 'Primetime' starring Robert Pattinson? | indy100

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A true-crime thriller Primetime starring Robert Pattinson might just be one of the most highly anticipated films of the year.

"In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history," the plot synopsis reads, as Pattinson plays the fictionalised version of television journalist.

The show aired on Dateline NBC from 2004-2007 where fake online accounts would be set up pretending to be children in order to lure suspected paedophiles into a real-life trap with hidden cameras where the suspected sexual predators would be confronted.

Alongside Pattinson, the film directed by Lance Oppenheim, also stars Merritt Wever (Severance), Skyler Gisondo (Superman), Tony Revolori (Spider-Man), and singer-songwrite Phoebe Bridgers makes her acting debut.

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Hansen himself was not involved in the film and has been vocal in his criticism, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "I think it’s an insult to the thousands of men and women who work hard every day to protect children from predators. They turn something that is very positive, very challenging and not without risk into what is essentially a horror film."

Meanwhile, Pattinson spoke of Hansen to Variety where he said, “I mean, obviously I hope he likes the movie,"

“"I never really set out to make a movie about Chris Hansen. I would hope in some ways, like, the amount of inspiration that his character has kind of given certain people who are involved in this [film] for like years now, I hope is some kind of compliment."

What are critics saying?

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Critics reviews have been pouring in for Primetime after it premiered at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on September 5, and it has received largely positive reviews, with particular praise being awarded to Pattinson's portrayal of Hansen.

Overall, Primetime has a critics score of 93 per cent on film and TV review aggregate website, Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, it has an IMDb rating of 7.8 out of 10, and at the time of writing does not yet have an official overall Letterboxd rating.

BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber rated the film five stars, "The key could be that Pattinson never asks us to sympathise with the character. In fact, he seems happy for us to loathe him. But it's a pleasure to watch him, anyway. This is the best performance yet from the most intriguing actor of his generation."

"Inspired by a 2007 magazine article about the series’ grisly conclusion the previous year, it is the best and nastiest film of its type since 2014’s Nightcrawler: it leaves its audience simultaneously appalled and thrilled, and thereby grubbily complicit," wrote The Telegraph's Robbie Collin in his five-star review.

Variety's Jessica Kiany said, "This uncompromisingly grimy approach would be actively repellent were it not for the extraordinary performances, which make 'Primetime' a thing you cannot stop watching even as the desire to flee to the nearest shower cubicle grows."

"Everyone’s souls here are sick at the roots, as is the camera, the editing, the production design, the movie itself," IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio noted, grading the film a B.

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw rated the film two out of five stars, "A strangely overwrought and heavy-footed drama-thriller, which for all its elaborate neon-lit atmosphere of noir danger isn’t at all sure what it wants to say about media or morality, or anything else.

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney commented, "Although Primetime is entertaining in a sicko, silly sort of a way, it shows too little intellectual or psychological curiosity to displace Predators as the more serious study and might leave you wondering who and what this anti-date movie is for."

When is the release date?

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Primetime is out in cinemas from September 25 in the US, and from 30 October in the UK.

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