Critics Hail Pattinson's Chris Hansen in A24's Primetime — SkimNews
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- Primetime debuted at the Venice Film Festival as an A24 drama directed by Lance Oppenheim about Chris Hansen and the Dateline NBC true-crime program "To Catch a Predator," which used online decoys posing as minors to ensnare suspected predators.
- Robert Pattinson stars as Hansen, with Deadline's Damon Wise describing the performance as a "mixture of Jerry Maguire and Count Dracula" and suggesting it may mark "the Christian Bale period of his career."
- The Playlist called Pattinson "monomaniacal, magnetic and completely unhinged," while BBC's Nicholas Barber called him "extraordinary" and predicted the film is "sure to be an Oscar contender — although it may be a controversial one."
- Awards Watch and IndieWire each gave the film a B grade, with Awards Watch noting it "recreates the machinery" of To Catch a Predator "with considerable skill" but "leaves its moral machinery largely untouched."
- Variety praised the ensemble — including Merrit Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Alex Winter and Phoebe Bridgers — and called the film an "edgy, exploratory thesis on the dark ambitions and darker motivations" of Chris Hansen.
- Next Best Picture awarded 7/10 and singled out Skyler Gisondo as the "true standout," while still flagging Pattinson as a strong Best Actor contender.
Why it matters: The film enters awards season as an early Oscar contender per BBC, with Pattinson drawing near-universal praise for his uncanny Chris Hansen. But the split between rave notices and B scores from IndieWire and Awards Watch — which flagged the film's refusal to interrogate its own moral machinery — signals an Oscars-friendly performance may sit atop a more divisive movie.
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