By Jesse Dixon
Robert Pattinson stars as ‘To Catch A Predator’ host Chris Hansen as his controversial reality television program moves to Dateline NBC’s primetime slot.
Lance Oppenheim is having quite the month. Not that us Australians would know, as both Primetime and You Can See Everything arrive here over a month after their US release (thanks a lot, A24). But helming two of the most talked-about and beloved films of 2026, one fiction and one non-fiction, is very, very impressive. And he’s only thirty years old!
In 2006, Chris Hansen was forty-seven. ‘To Catch a Predator’ was bumped to primetime to compete with ABC’s ‘Lost’. Fiction vs. non-fiction. Of course we had Survivor, Big Brother, etc., but Hansen’s show paved the way for the true crime boom of today, including documentaries, podcasts, and all the MONSTER: The [insert serial killer] Stories that are very problematic and probably shouldn’t be made, but hey, you wanna win a big shiny award?
And this, one can assume, is why Robert Pattinson is in this movie. At 40 years of age, he is yet to be nominated for an Academy Award, despite an incredible run of films over the last decade with The Drama, The Odyssey, Primetime and Dune 3 in this year alone. Out of these four, playing a real-life controversial figure is surely his best opportunity to be recognised? Except that’s too easy for Rob – who prefers to take risks both in his projects and in his performances. Pattinson is hamming it up in every single scene (complimentary), from Predator set-pieces to scenes with co-lead Skyler Gisondo to theatrically spitting into a sink. He refuses to let Oscar prospects interfere with his own creativity as a performer, an attitude that all actors should take on.
The rest of the cast is also excellent. I mentioned Gisondo, who is at his career best as Dan Plumb, one of the actors Predator hires to stand in for children. Merrit Weaver, Phoebe Bridgers, Bokeem Woodbine, and Jonathan ‘the human head weighs eight pounds’ Lipnicki are all incredible. An Actors Award ensemble nomination would be extremely deserving, as would a casting Oscar nod for Molly Rose and Francine Maisler.
Despite the strength of the acting and direction, the film slightly derails late in the second act for this reviewer when Hansen and his team go after ‘a whale ’-a high-profile target rumoured to be a state senator that they are attempting to expose as a child predator.
For me, this part of the movie was not as meticulously planned as the rest, and what should have been a thrilling chase to catch a predator was dull and dragged out, prompting me to long for another great scene between Pattinson and Weaver, or Pattinson and Gisondo, or Pattinson and Anna Faris, who plays Hansen’s wife and has about nineteen seconds of screen time.
Character scenes can be more exhilarating than action scenes if handled well, as Oppenheim was doing all movie. This felt derivative of what was making Primetime truly great, and as a result it has to settle for very good. But very good is great! Very good will flood the streets on Halloween with Chris Hansen after Chris Hansen.
Primetime is a hit, and that’s an excellent thing for cinema. Let Robert Pattinson be an example to all his fellow A-listers. Take a swing at original, independent films with creative writer/directors and use your fame to get interesting projects off the ground and into theatres. It works.
‘Primetime’ is available to watch in Australian Cinemas from Thursday, 29 October 2026.