Primetime
One of the oddest films of 2026.
I suppose the message behind the movie Primetime is child raping is OK, or at the very least we, as humans should be sympathetic towards those who wish to rape children. You probably weren’t expecting to read that.
Primetime is one of the more bizarre films to come out of 2026, delivering a pretty well-known story and the fast-paced look and feel of a sleek indie feature in line with A24’s signature style. Anyone over 20 likely remembers journalist Chris Hansen’s cultural impact. Hansen hosted To Catch a Predator on Dateline NBC in the 2000s, and it became a massive hit, almost immediately. The show shined a spotlight on child predators lurking in teenage chat rooms online. The episode that really brought all the outrage was the John Kennelly incident. The 44-year-old showed up naked with a case of beer, expecting to meet a child. After confronting Hansen, he swore never to do it again, only to be busted the next day at a McDonald’s, ready to meet a child for sex.
Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen.
How Predator worked was first, members of Perverted-Justice—a vigilante watchdog group with director of operations Xavier Von Erck doing a lot of the online chatter—would pose as 11- to 15-year-olds online. After corresponding with adult men, they would lure them to a targeted location where Hansen would confront them. Hansen typically emerged from around a corner, armed with transcripts of the chat logs. After catching them off guard, the camera crew would step out, and Hansen would state who they were before delivering his catchphrase: “If you don’t have anything else to say, you’re free to go.” The men would inevitably walk out the door, only to be tackled by police and taken into custody. Sounds like a compelling setup for a movie adaptation, right? Although Primetime is “based on actual events”, most of the situations, characters, and locations have been heavily altered. So does that make it a fictionalized account, or simply a fabricated story?
The year is 2006, and Chris Hansen’s (Robert Pattinson) To Catch a Predator is in full swing. Hansen is determined to secure the top spot and network recognition, but Stone Phillips (Bill Heck) remains the center of attention while covering the war in Afghanistan. NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Zucker (playing himself) gets the wild idea to pit Predator directly against LOST‘s time slot, believing the show can overtake it in ratings and win awards. LOST was the biggest thing on TV at the time. Zucker puts intense pressure on Hansen and producer Andie (Merritt Wever) to land bigger and higher-profile targets—as if that were a reasonable goal.
Producer Andie (Merritt Wever), Jeff Zucker and Pattison talk about getting the top slot.
As the chaos of production ramps up, decoys to lure the rapists begin quitting. Up-and-coming actor Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo) answers an ad looking for young-looking adults to play teenagers for television. Meanwhile, female decoy Del (Phoebe Bridgers) grows weary of the operation and tries to warn Decoy Dan that this is far from a normal acting gig.
While everything appears on track, Hansen is consumed by an extramarital affair and obsessed with ratings. He will stop at nothing to beat LOST and outperform that damned Phillips. Even Andie notes that “he looks off” when confronting a suspect (for the actual scene that was filmed, look here). That is, until the team receives a letter from local law enforcement in Murphy, Texas, thanking them for their efforts. Von Erck (Matthew Maher) investigates the area to see if they can capitalize on the location, strikes gold, and sends the crew on their way.
If you have watched the original show or listened to any of Hansen’s interviews, you likely have a sense of his public persona. The anxiety-ridden, self-absorbed, ratings-obsessed depiction in Primetime feels more like a caricature than a realistic portrayal. Reports indicate that Hansen had no involvement in the production and was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting negative comments prior to a preview screening. He ultimately saw the film on opening night and has been vocal ever since. Pattinson delivers an unhinged performance reminiscent of Nicolas Cage in Face/Off, which feels mismatched for the role. In one particularly bizarre scene, Hansen wakes his children to watch footage of a recent sting before pleading with his wife (Anna Faris) while dressed in pajamas, a dress shirt, and a tie. The scene concludes with Hansen praising his wife’s feet, swearing he will always love her. Around every other sentence, Pattinson is either peacocking, yelling or giving people nicknames. Del attempts to distance herself from the production, in a misguided effort to portray the suspects sympathetically. Decoy Dan (a nickname given to him by a wink and a gun Hansen) picks up on her reservations, particularly during an encounter with a suspect while Hansen suffers a breakdown over whether a suspect’s vehicle was spotted by the crew. The car was caught by the camera and Hansen himself opened the door, so how is it possible that the car is missing? The film frames the rapists as individuals as merely wanting companionship, suggesting that society itself is the primary issue.
Decoy Dan (Skyler Gisondo) starts to think that rapists will be fine if we just let them be.
Director Lance Oppenheim crafts a dark and intense look at a man at the brink of failure. His only salvation will be better ratings. Ajon Singh co-wrote with Luke Dittrich, who grew to immense controversy with his doc Predator, in which Dittrich moved towards a softer route on child rapists and overlooked the world ruining they create. Far be it for me to accuse any of the filmmakers or writers of Primetime of this behavior, but if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and makes a movie about quacking ducks …
You see how this looks, right?
Primetime is now showing in theaters
Directed by Lance Oppenheim
Written by Ajon Singh and Luke Dittrich
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo
Genre: Thriller
Runtime: 109 mins
