Primetime First Reviews: A Riveting Satire Filmed Like an Arthouse Horror Movie
Critics at the Venice Film Festival say Robert Pattinson is outstanding as Chris Hansen in this colorful, highly stylized portrait full of scene-stealing supporting performances.
The Chris Hansen biopic Primetime just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and the first reviews are now online. Robert Pattinson portrays the journalist and TV host during his time on the controversial program To Catch a Predator, and the performance is generating a lot of Oscar buzz. Phoebe Bridgers is also earning notice for her acting debut while Skyler Gisondo is said to be a scene stealer. Marking the narrative feature debut of documentary director Lance Oppenheim (Ren Faire), it sounds like it’ll be one of the most talked about releases of the year.
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Here’s what critics are saying about Primetime:
Does the movie live up to expectations?
Lance Oppenheim delivers a shocking but entertaining exposé that is impossible to peel your eyes away from.
– Dallas King, Flick Feast
While Primetime may not entirely be a narrative home run, there’s still plenty to rave about.
– Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture
There’s nowhere to go and almost no arc from beginning to end, but that doesn’t make the results of this scuzzy satire any less bleakly invigorating.
– Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
Although Primetime is entertaining in a sicko, silly sort of a way, it shows too little intellectual or psychological curiosity to displace Predators as the more serious study and might leave you wondering who and what this anti-date movie is for.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
What can we really expect from it, genre-wise?
Primetime moves at the propulsive pace of a thriller, but has the style of an arthouse horror movie at its squirmiest.
– Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
Oppenheim has designed Primetime as a nightmarishly claustrophobic 4:3 portrait of Hansen as a horror villain.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
How is Robert Pattinson’s performance?
He delivers another outstanding performance as Chris Hansen.
– Dallas King, Flick Feast
He surrenders himself wholeheartedly to the erratic impulses of Hansen’s persona in a fiery performance that feels as instinctive as it is intent.
– Yasmine Kandi, Discussing Film
A new high-water mark for Pattinson.
– Marshall Shaffer, The Playlist
Riveting to watch.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Not only does he match the host’s mannerisms, but his slow descent into madness is an entertaining ride.
– Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture
Pattinson’s own mannerisms occasionally seep through, making him seem a little young for the part.
– Martin Tsai, Awards Watch
What about Phoebe Bridgers in her acting debut?
A remarkably assured acting debut.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Bridgers proffers the second of the film’s most impressive transformations.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
Does anyone else in the cast stand out?
Gisondo emerges as a stellar player in this ensemble… He’s a secret weapon in bringing out the complexities of this former program.
– Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture
Skyler Gisondo is the true backbone of this story.
– Yasmine Kandi, Discussing Film
The ensemble is equally strong, especially Wever and a cameo from Jessica Hecht as an acid-tainted rival news producer looking to poach.
– Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
In particular Wever, who has never not been good in anything, is absolutely blistering here.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
How is the script?
Singh’s penmanship carries the astuteness of a seasoned writer. Every ounce of humor is counterbalanced by thrilling tension, sustaining a rhythm of exhilaration until the credits roll.
– Yasmine Kandi, Discussing Film
As the film progresses, the avoidance of judgment begins to feel less like neutrality than an abdication of responsibility.
– Martin Tsai, Awards Watch
The film’s energy often dips once screenwriter Ajon Singh pivots to focus on Chris’ personal struggles, aka a marital affair.
– Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture
How does the movie look?
That the images remain somehow both tactile and hallucinatory as the camera moves in increasingly subjective directions is nothing short of a marvel.
– Marshall Shaffer, The Playlist
The film’s grainy yet richly saturated frames and dynamic visual techniques are as compelling as the intricate subjects they explore.
– Yasmine Kandi, Discussing Film
DP David Bolen’s greasy, saturated images [are] so livid with grain that it feels like they leave dirt under your fingernails.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
How is Lance Oppenheim’s transition to narrative features?
Director Lance Oppenheim, who comes from documentary filmmaking, is unexpectedly visual in translating this material to fiction.
– Martin Tsai, Awards Watch
Primetime feels well suited to Oppenheim’s instinctual eye for intimate portraiture.
– Yasmine Kandi, Discussing Film
Oppenheim manages the actors with finesse, getting strong work especially from Pattinson, Gisondo, New York stage regular Maher and the always brilliant Wever.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
That exuberance of the direction is the primary allure of Primetime.
– Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
Are there any other notable parts about the movie?
The attention to detail is crisp. Exciting and colorful editing flourishes.
– Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture
Daniel Garber’s inspired, allusive and often very witty editing style constantly makes illuminating connections and interruptions.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
Ari Balouzian’s score complicates any simple reading of the tone.
– Marshall Shaffer, The Playlist
Does it have any major problems?
The most frustrating aspect of Primetime… Its climax is depicted with such matter-of-fact efficiency that there is scarcely any reckoning with the price paid.
– Martin Tsai, Awards Watch
Primetime never digs that deep, which made me question what this flashy but shallow movie hopes to achieve. It’s exposing precisely nothing.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
It never swings its ravenous camera back on us; perhaps Oppenheim knows we’re not ready for what it would reveal.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
Should we also watch the documentary Predators?
So how did it all happen? That’s a question that Primetime doesn’t really care to answer — and one better addressed in David Osit’s excellent 2025 documentary Predators.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
Hot off David Osit’s harrowing Predators documentary from last year, Primetime lacks for explicitly new insight, but it won’t stop digging for it.
– Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
Primetime is in theaters on September 25, 2026. Buy tickets on Fandango.
