There are some phrases that become so entrenched in the cultural consciousness that they are able to exist even outside of the context in which they were originally said. For many viewers, the sentence “why don’t you have a seat right over there?” immediately takes us back to a very particular time in television history, as these were the words usually uttered by Chris Hansen, who lives on in notoriety for his television show To Catch a Predator, in which he famously conducted sting operations alongside law enforcement and a national vigilante group, with the intention of exposing sexual predators by luring them into what they believed to be suburban homes, but were instead used as the location where many individuals saw their lives change as a result of allowing their impulses to cloud their better judgment. For many, Hansen is hailed as a hero, someone who often risked not only his reputation, but his safety as a whole, purely in an effort to rid the world of as many predators as possible. However, others consider him to be a man of questionable morals, someone who was more intent on chasing ratings and drawing as large an audience as possible, even if it meant sacrificing some of his scruples and making some very harsh decisions about the situations in which he not only places himself, but also the large team with whom he worked for several years. This is where Lance Oppenheim, in his narrative feature debut, draws the inspiration for Primetime, which follows Hansen’s career as he develops To Catch a Predator into one of the most widely watched programs in the history of television, with particular emphasis being on one particularly notorious incident in 2007, where Bill Conradt, a district attorney and respected member of the community, committed suicide after being ambushed by police officers, which was the result of Hansen and his producers deciding to forego all their safety protocols in the hopes of boosting their ratings. It was a risk that certainly did not pay off in the way anyone expected, as dramatised in this fascinating and provocative film that attempts to dig deep into the mind of a man who built so much of his career around exposing predators, which had unexpected consequences.

There are some subjects that are inherently difficult to approach from an artistic perspective, even if it emerges from someone being undeniably on the right side of the issue. Whenever a taboo subject is used as the foundation for a film, there is a never-ending amount of discourse around the ethics of telling a particular story, and it seems like Oppenheim was very much prepared for this when he envisioned the creation of Primetime, which focuses squarely on the subject of sexual predators being forced to pay the consequences, lured into feeling a false sense of security by a team of incredibly intelligent operatives that work together to create the perfect conditions to expose these people for what they truly are, without any hesitation. There is a reason why predators – especially those who prey on children – are universally considered the most reviled members of society, to the point where being forced into exile from the rest of the world seems like a gift for these people. It is on this premise that Hansen built his media empire, making it his entire raison d’être to force pedophiles and predators to face the consequences. Those who are familiar with To Catch a Predator are familiar with his methods, but rather than being solely about Hansen and his team’s endeavour to rid society of its most despicable members, the film attempts to peel away the layers of a man who is far more complex than anyone would ever imagine, someone whose pursuit of justice seems noble, but where we also need to assess it as more than just a crusade against the perverts who populate society, but also an opportunity to capitalise on it, since we unfortunately live in a world where ratings speak more than anything else, at least for those in the television industry. To peer behind the curtain of a show that has been shrouded in controversy for nearly two decades, and in particular having the climactic moments be centred around the events that brought the show to its knees as a result of those in charge overstepping their bounds and being slightly too overzealous, is an ambitious choice, and one that anchors Primetime, giving it a far more layered perspective than we may initially realise based on the subject matter.

Setting aside the many controversies surrounding his career, I do wholeheartedly believe that, in spite of his flaws, Hansen is someone who has good intentions, even when they are often shrouded in a veneer of peculiarity that can sometimes be distracting in many ways, which some can argue is part of his mystique. However, when choosing to bring him to the screen as a character in Primetime, they were faced with a clear decision: do they choose someone who can accurately play Hansen, down to the physical resemblance, or do they go in a more offbeat direction for dramatic purposes? Evidently, they opted for the latter, since the responsibility to interpret Hansen fell to Robert Pattinson, who continues his seemingly never-ending crusade against the status quo by adding yet another oddball to his list of credits. By this point, Pattinson has to do very little to prove his mettle – his ability to disappear into a character is unmatched, and it has positioned him as undeniably one of the most exciting actors working today. His decision to play Hansen as a vaguely vampiric entity, someone who seemingly floats through life searching for his fix while concealing it under layers of concern is fascinating, and presents quite a complex portrait of him as a character. Even when some of the performance may entail a substantial amount of embellishment, there is a compelling quality to this part that draws the viewer in – and while it is certainly difficult (and frankly a bit foolish) to even consider labelling any singular performance as being the peak for a prolific, versatile actor like Pattinson, he is doing career-best work in Primetime, a film that is intent on showcasing him as someone who can fully inhabit a character in often unconventional ways. Beyond Pattinson, we find the supporting cast populated by a wide array of names – Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers (in her film debut) play the actors hired as decoys for the show, while Merritt Wever (who continues to be one of the most exciting actors working today, and someone who deserves much more credit) is chilling as the producer who reveals herself to be the puppeteer pulling the strings, creating a fascinating but terrifying dynamic with Pattinson, which becomes the foundation for many of the film’s most provocative moments.

Something that we have come to understand about Oppenheim is that he is not someone who seems all that interested in playing by the rules, with even his documentaries being deliberately challenging and unconventional works, even when they are still very entertaining and insightful. He manages to avoid the usual obstacles that filmmakers who have worked primarily in non-fiction face when attempting to cross the aisle and do something in the narrative space by establishing an immediate vision for this story. The premise of Primetime is certainly fascinating enough that it could’ve been interpreted in so many different directions, and part of the appeal of the film is not knowing exactly where the director is going to take this idea, and he certainly does not disappoint. Rather than a traditional biographical account of Hansen’s time hosting To Catch a Predator, the film chooses to take a more unorthodox approach, sprouting from Oppenheim’s clear intention to make Primetime as bleak and haunting as possible, crafting an unforgettable psychological thriller that pushes the viewer to the very edges of our sanity in the hopes of making us feel at least some of the tension that existed behind the scenes on this show that took the world by storm, but still proved to be much more than just a television production once we understand the emotional and physical toll it took on multiple people. There are many moments in which the film employs horror imagery as a storytelling technique, emphasising the fear and despair that surrounded these events, turning the film into a very complex psychological thriller. It is formally also very inventive – there are visual and auditory elements that may seem unnecessary from a distance, with certain compositions seemingly just being there to showcase the director’s mastery of his craft, but eventually become part of the film’s identity as an intentionally disorienting work that challenges the viewer to sit in a state of discomfort as we watch the world fall apart in front of us, creating an immersive experience that is as perplexing as it is deeply captivating, drawing us in with these bold directorial decisions, but ultimately holding our attention through its willingness to push further than a more conventional film with this subject matter would ever be able to achieve.

As both a filmmaker and observer of society and its many unconventional traits, Oppenheim has proven to be incredibly smart, being logical enough to know that the viewer should not be forced to think one particular way, but rather allowed to make up their own mind about a subject, his responsibility merely being to shepherd a few key themes to the forefront in the hopes of stirring conversation and provoking thought. By the end of Primetime, we’ve been taken on quite a journey, plunged into the dizzying depths of a subject so bleak and harrowing that it is only natural to feel like every bit of hope has been extinguished, since we’re beset by the realisation that predators walk amongst us, and often remain undetected, being allowed to exist as long as their misdeeds remain concealed from public view. What stands out even more upon seeing discussion of this film is that no one quite knows what the intended outcome of it was supposed to be, since we certainly do shuffle out of the cinema feeling emotionally exhausted and suitably disturbed, having witnessed a brutal evisceration of not only the television industry, but the overall media landscape and culture at large, which are the targets of this relentless and unforgiving film that takes a familiar subject and infuses it with layers drawn from multiple genres (ranging from psychological thriller to body horror, with even a few brief satirical jabs thrown in for good measure – to make the audience laugh in a film like this seems like a very meaningful act of artistic rebellion, and one that the director treats with the appropriate level of restraint) to create something deeply unnerving and profoundly unconventional in a way that actually truly feels like it is saying something – the challenge is deciding exactly what it wants to communicate, which isn’t a sign of any kind of narrative deficiency on Oppenheim’s part, but rather his decision to tell this story and then hand it over to the viewer to make up their own decision about how we perceive the austere and chilling conclusion, which is about as far from a satisfying conclusion as we can get, which all seems to be entirely by design. A brilliant, subversive film that is never satisfied to settle for traditions, Primetime is a film that will linger in the mind of the viewer, especially in how it unravels into something far more hopeless than anyone could’ve ever anticipated.