Primetime Review: The Evil That Men Do

Primetime, like the early 2000s TV show To Catch a Predator that this film lays bare, is in turn icky, undaunted, questionable, and compellingly watchable. Documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim (Ren Faire, Some Kind of Heaven) makes his narrative feature debut with Primetime, a film based on real events that thrusts newsman Chris Hansen’s hidden-camera show into an uncomfortable spotlight. That show, whose mission it was to expose child sex predators, is here caught in an exposé of its own methods and motives.

A brilliant turn as Hansen by Robert Pattinson (who is also one of the film’s producers) anchors Primetime, along with the always incredible Merritt Wever as his producer Andie Bender (a fictional creation). In fact, the entire cast is superb and become major elements of the film’s irresistibility. Musician Phoebe Bridgers is a marvel as the twentysomething decoy Del, who poses as either a young teenage boy or girl to entrap predators, as is Skyler Gisondo as the operation’s new decoy Dan. Dan is a beginning actor who just wants to earn his union card, while Del is a true believer in bringing evildoers to justice.

The opening sequences of Primetime offer a hectic behind-the-scenes view of the To Catch a Predator undertaking. In a house decked out with concealed cameras and TV host, as well as a TV crew observing from a van parked outside, an unsuspecting predator arrives for a meeting with a person he has been led to believe is a young teen. Before anything sexual happens, Chris Hansen emerges from his hiding place to confront the man and expose his degenerate intentions for all the TV world to see. The camerawork superbly captures the grainy, low-res camera look of verité work of the time while the editing deftly connects the dots and gives a sense of the frenzy involved in producing unscripted television. We also learn of the show’s affiliation with Perverted Justice’s Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher), the initiator of the online chats that lure in the prospective predators. These scenes allow those unfamiliar with the 20-year-old show to get their bearings, yet might offer devotees of the show an eye-opening look at some of the ethical quandaries inherent in this vigilante justice program.

The plot escalates when Hansen is informed by the studio head (unexpectedly played by Jeff Zucker, the actual NBC chief at the time) that they are thinking of separating To Catch a Predator from its inclusion as part of Dateline and promoting it to its own primetime slot and, furthermore, programming it against the giant hit of the time Lost. Hansen’s fervor escalates with the new goal, as does Andie’s, who until this point had been vacillating about her commitment to the show’s slippery moral slope. Also shown is a case in which a suicide occurs during a sting operation. That debacle may have led to the show’s eventual cancellation. But as Hansen points out in the film, civilization has always condoned public displays of justice administered and warranted humiliation. Television has replaced the pillories of yore, he argues, and this film makes his case.

Primetime screened as part of Fantastic Fest. Read more of the Chronicle’s FF2026 coverage.

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This article appears in September 25 • 2026.