Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator was a big deal for a hot minute in the early aughts, a series born out of a very successful Dateline segment that captured the attention of viewers around the country. That series didn’t last very long, for reasons everybody’s familiar with. Documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim is giving us two films this fall, and the first is his narrative feature debut Primetime, which follows the rise and fall of To Catch a Predator, which ran from 2004-2007, and its host, Chris Hansen. Primetime premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last month, where it enjoyed enthusiastic acclaim. The kind of acclaim that makes me very worried for the moment I sit down in a movie theater for said film. When early reviews feature this kind of rapturous language I find them to almost always be hyperbolic. But not always!

Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) is the host of Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator, a show that uses decoy actors as a sting, or a trap for men soliciting sex from underage people online. He thinks of himself as a vigilante, a crusader doing important work. And perhaps he is to some degree, but he’s also kind of a sleazy, egotistical megalomaniac. With the help of his ruthless producer Andie (Merritt Wever), he’s on the fast track to television infamy. He’s also desperate to snuff out his own potential scandal, which can threaten his credibility. Shortly after hiring Dan (Skyler Gisondo) as his next decoy, things begin to unravel. 

I was surprisingly not all that familiar with this story. I was between 12 and 15 years old when this was happening, and I didn’t really pay attention to all of it at the time. I hadn’t gotten a chance to see Predators, David Osit’s documentary film about the same subject prior to seeing Oppenheim’s film. I hear I need to see that eventually because it documents the larger societal impact this show had, rather than what Primetime is doing. Primetime, more than anything else, is a character study of Chris Hansen, one that the subject is, no surprise, very upset with. He reportedly was offered to screen the movie early, but refused to sign an NDA and saw the movie on this past Thursday night like I did, and called it an ‘entirely fictional portrayal’. Sure, Chris.

Primetime is a character study of Hansen, and it’s a damning one. He’s portrayed as a maniacal borderline sociopath, and Oppenheim makes the smart choice of never really giving you anyone to root for. Because, obviously the predators in question are vile, repugnant individuals, but in the context of this film, Hansen is not much better. He’s sneaky, conniving, underhanded and cruel. I watched some interviews from him during the aftermath of everything that happens in this film and he doesn’t seem to have learned much from the fallout of this series. And the character in the film also learns nothing by the end. Doesn’t seem like a fictional portrayal to me, but I digress.

The buzzy centerpiece of the film that I’m sure we’ll hear about all awards season is the spectacular performance Robert Pattinson is giving. He hasn’t been this good in a long time, maybe ever. He’s leaning into a very unhinged Nicolas Cage/Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler kind of energy, and he welcomes that challenge enthusiastically. First of all, he’s so good as a villain. There are subtle hints to the character’s mania that happen early in the movie, like the slightest eyelid twitch, that when you get to see the crazier version of him that emerges over the film, it doesn’t feel out of place. There’s a scene early on where he’s talking to a passenger seated next to him on an airplane, and his body language in this moment alone tells you everything you need to know about this character. It’s a big, showy performance but Pattinson is more interested in the smaller moments. Don’t be surprised when you see him nominated for everything this fall.

As good as Pattinson is, Merritt Wever and Skyler Gisondo pretty much walk away with the whole movie. Wever is a character actress I’ve liked a lot since she was in Nurse Jackie, and brought so much depth to this character, and she always does this. You feel like there’s an entire life this character has that the audience is only given bits and pieces of. Andie is basically as cold and calculating as Hansen, but in different ways. An amalgamation of a few different real life figures, Andie’s behavior seems more savvy and knowing, but over the course of the movie, you begin to see the slightest hint of a conscience in her eyes, maybe a little regret. But by the end, she may have also learned nothing. 

To me, Skyler Gisondo is the same kind of exciting character actor Wever is. He’s always bringing more to a role than what’s in the script. He’s a fun comedic presence in James Gunn’s Superman and Booksmart, not to mention Netflix’s cancelled-too-soon Santa Clarita Diet. But Primetime is asking more of him, asking him to delve into more dramatic territory, and he nails every moment. He kind of becomes the emotional anchor of this film and the viewer really feels for him as he starts to get in over his head. Anna Faris also pops up as Hansen’s wife, and unfortunately she has nothing to do. Musician Phoebe Bridgers also pops up as one of the show’s decoys, who can impersonate a tween girl or boy. I’m a fan of Bridgers and I didn’t know she was in this, but she impressed me. She mostly has scenes with Gisondo, and she has a detachment in her eyes that serves as a solid counterpart to what’s going on with Gisondo’s character. She’s also got an original song over the end credits and it’s a banger.

Like I was saying, this is Lance Oppenheim’s narrative feature debut and it still feels like it has the bones and the shape of a documentary. We move at a breakneck pace, from one thing to the next very quickly. The film feels like it’s covering a lot of time but also keeps its focus on the characters more than anything else. Ajon Singh wrote the script, and it’s also an impressive debut. The pace is fast but it seems to give every important part of this story the time it needs. Oppenheim also makes the film feel like a horror movie a lot of the time, with the lighting and the music. It’s a gutsy choice that works.

David Bolen’s our cinematographer and he’s worked with Oppenheim on his previous documentaries. The cinematography along with Alex DiGerlando’s production design, gives you the very lurid, sleazy, scuzzy vibe Oppenheim is clearly going for. It’s got a grainy, analog kind of look to it, and Bolen is often trapping Pattinson in these dramatic close-ups that frame his performance in ways that feel claustrophobic, and that totally works. Ari Balouzian composes the score and it’s chaotic and frenetic and very anxiety-inducing. That’s to say it’s doing its job very well. It’s also a score you’re constantly noticing, not one that blends in, but sometimes that’s a good thing.

Primetime is probably not going to teach you a lot about Hansen and what drove him and why he continues to do work like this independently on a YouTube channel years after To Catch a Predator went off the air. But it does allow Robert Pattinson to do some career-best work, and that’s justification enough for this to exist. If you want a thorough examination on everything that went wrong for Predator and Hansen, go find the documentary. This film is basically about the messiness of morality. The predators don’t deserve redemption, but the execution of it all was and is problematic. You won’t get a lot of the cold hard facts here, but if you want a genuinely unsettling, grim, cynical and bleak character study anchored by some excellent performances, look no further. And get ready to hear Pattinson’s name a lot as we jump into awards season.