Robert Pattinson’s recent run of standout performances may have reached its most provocative chapter yet with “Primetime.” The new A24 film from director Lance Oppenheim has been generating major buzz since its first trailer introduced Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” presenter Chris Hansen. Now that critics have screened the complete movie, the early reaction suggests “Primetime” could be one of the year’s biggest critical successes. Watch the video above for a closer look at the reviews and everything to know before the film arrives in theaters on September 25.
The broad takeaway is unmistakably positive: critics are calling “Primetime” a compelling piece of filmmaking. Oppenheim’s direction has received particular attention, as has the movie’s tightly confined visual style and its meticulous recreation of mid-2000s reality television. Although the project draws from real events and is technically a biographical film, it plays more like a psychological thriller—or at times, outright horror—which fits the unsettling nature of its subject.
“Primetime” is “both a nightmarish psychological thriller and a pitch black comedy unpacking the very idea of Chris Hansen,” Looper critic Dominic Griffin wrote. Griffin and several other reviewers have noted the uneasy balance between the film’s real-world inspiration and the liberties taken by Oppenheim’s fictionalized approach. Even so, the dominant critical opinion is that the movie’s risks largely pay off.
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Critics are calling Primetime a triumph for Pattinson in particular
A24
At the time of writing, “Primetime” sits at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 84 reviews. Much of that acclaim is aimed at Pattinson, whose performance could represent his strongest opportunity yet for an Academy Award nomination. In a 3.5/4-star review for RogerEbert.com, Matt Zoller Seitz praised Pattinson’s ability to embody deeply untrustworthy characters, writing that the actor has been given “a motherlode of sleaze” in this role. BBC critic Nicholas Barber went even further, awarding the film five stars and describing Pattinson’s work as “the best performance yet from the most intriguing actor of his generation.”
Still, not every critic has been convinced by the film’s broader ambitions. “Primetime” favors invention over strict biographical accuracy, and its commentary on media, morality and celebrity may not connect with everyone. Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw awarded the movie two stars out of five. He described it as “a strangely overwrought and heavy-footed drama-thriller,” arguing that despite its neon-soaked noir atmosphere, the film never fully settles on what it wants to say.
For a full breakdown of the critical response to “Primetime,” watch the video above. Audiences can judge the Robert Pattinson-led A24 thriller for themselves when it opens in theaters on September 25.