Primetime is a wild ride, but it’s also one that eventually loses momentum. Anna Faris, as Hansen’s long-suffering wife, is underused, as is the always excellent Wever, who is at the center of a subplot that goes nowhere. There are visualizations and reenactments that feel entirely unnecessary. There’s also a distinct messiness and lack of focus that cause the film to sag as we head into the final act.
If you’re familiar with the story of how and why To Catch a Predator was finally cancelled, you’ll be able to guess where it goes. The film’s denouement is tense as hell, but its final sequence is also wrapped up a little too quickly, ending Primetime on a note I found weirdly anti-climactic. Despite having so much meaty real-life material to sink its teeth into, this is a movie that seems hesitant or unsure of what it wants to do with all those riches. Maybe, in this case, the reality—as glimpsed in David Osit’s 2025 documentary about the show, Predators—is stranger and more compelling than any fiction could render it.
Photo: Courtesy of A24
Still, if purely as a demonstration of what Pattinson is capable of, and the gloriously wacky choices he continues to make, Primetime is well worth watching. Now bring on his bizarre, white-haired, villainous turn in Dune: Part Three.
