Primetime: Tony Revolori and Robert Pattinson – Photo: A24
“Are you sure your parents aren’t home?” Nothing innocent ever started with that question, but almost no one is innocent in Primetime, a sardonic look at the making (and makers) of NBC’s notorious undercover sting series To Catch a Predator.
The query comes from “MarriedAndLookingForFun31313” (Tony Revolori), entering a suburban home through the back door, intent on meeting a 13-year-old for sex, and unaware he’s starring in an episode of the show. His hot hookup is really a trap, set for creeps cruising online for minors.
A few minutes later, he’s pleading, “Please don’t put this on TV!” But this is great TV. So before he knows it, MarriedAndLookingForFun31313, an Iraq War vet, finds himself the poster boy of primetime predators.
Based on a 2007 Esquire article, the film, directed by Lance Oppenheim, winds the clock back to 2006, when the popularity of To Catch a Predator earned the series a plum slot opposite ABC’s smash hit Lost.
On the strength of a couple seasons of hidden-camera crime-stopping, the show had already impacted culture, and made a star of host Chris Hansen, unflappably smarmy in the face of all manner of degenerate behavior. Capturing that slickness, down to his arch inflections, Robert Pattinson slips into a convincing portrayal of Hansen as a well-rehearsed hustler on a mission.
His wife Mary (Anna Faris) and their two boys at home in Connecticut are a source of strength and stability, yet exist a world apart from his number-one priority — his show. When he comes home from work in the wee hours and wakes his boys up to see them, it’s not to hear about their day, but to show them clips of To Catch a Predator.
Merritt Wever lends her portrayal of Hansen’s executive producer, Andie, a similarly charged, though less self-involved, single-mindedness. Andie attacks the job of baiting, luring, and catching predators with a total focus on producing riveting television. Serving justice is just an added benefit to making a hit show.
Promoted to the new time slot, they’ll have to go even harder to stay a hit. As warned by then-head of NBC, Jeff Zucker (played with startling accuracy by Jeff Zucker), they’ll need to produce “high impact predators” for the show to compete.
Pointedly, the film’s framing of events makes protecting children seem incidental to just about everyone involved. Only one member of the Predator team leads with their concern for stopping crime: Decoy Del (singer Phoebe Bridgers in a respectable turn), an abuse survivor committed to the cause of justice.
Del acts as the decoy teen girl or boy luring miscreants over phone and video chats, and greeting them in the house should they take the bait. Her “performance” as a horny teen dude makes a great running joke, alongside the reliable slapstick of Hansen popping up out of nowhere, and ambushed predators making a run for it only to be tackled in the bushes by cops in ridiculous camouflage.
Primetime: Skyler Gisondo – Photo: A24
Another of Del’s duties is to help train the show’s next decoy, earnest young actor Dan Plum, played by Skyler Gisondo, who practically steals the movie. Dan is the only innocent roaming this jungle, and his journey to the heart of darkness constitutes the most involving thread.
He takes his job as seriously as Del does, if for different reasons. Decoy Dan wants to nail the role and please his bosses, which means learning to act like a 13-year-old coming face-to-face with sex pests, some of whom seem sheepish and sad, while others radiate danger.
Amidst the jokes and near-camp of Pattinson’s performance, the atmosphere is appropriately murky, matched by Ari Balouzian’s evocative score. Scripted by Ajon Singh, the film spins a web of subplots steeped in cynicism, from Hansen being hounded by the National Enquirer over an extramarital affair, to Andie being pursued by a wily producer (Jessica Hecht) of the nascent hidden-camera series rival What Would You Do?.
As subplots mount and To Catch a Predator spins towards a shocking event that finally brings the house down, the film loses focus. What emerges is a piece of a picture of how the sausage got made — and the striking image of Gisondo’s wide-eyed Dan Plum, having practiced and practiced his pubescent decoy voice, going totally speechless when the Predator producers throw him to the wolves.
Primetime (★★★☆☆½) is rated R and playing in theaters nationwide. Visit fandango.com.
Spoiler Alert: This recap reveals events from Episodes 3 and 4 of The Traitors: New Blood.
Last night, we took a trip back to the Highlands for another two episodes of lying, backstabbing, and Scottish treachery. It is revealed that both Katie and Xavier found the missing death warrants, meaning Joe and Tomica must choose which player to add to the turret, and which to murder. Katie pitches the fact that she voted for Madeline during the roundtable as a means of "flying under the radar," while Xavier admits a more aggressive strategy. He'd spent the day planting Katie's name in Traitor conversations, attempting to taint her reputation in the castle.
Spoiler Alert: This recap reveals events from the two-episode premiere of The Traitors: New Blood.
Last night, NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood premiered, with the delightfully devilish Alan Cumming returning as host. This time, the 22 residents of Ardross Castle aren’t the usual assortment of reality TV stars and professional entertainers. Instead, they’re regular people from across America, attempting to lie, sleuth, and murder their way to $250,000.
We open on a train winding through the gorgeous Scottish Highlands as the contestants introduce themselves. The players come from all walks of life. Kim is a lawyer who notes that “people think attorneys are dishonest and manipulative,” so she poses as a college basketball coach. Funeral director Joe says, “it’s like we’re going to Hogwarts, but everyone wants to murder each other.”
Everybody just wants Ridley Scott to get on with it.
By that, of course, I mean wrap up the damn Alien trilogy he started with Prometheus and left dangling -- quite unnervingly -- nearly a decade ago with Covenant. But Ridley is a stubborn old director, and he's going to make what he feels like making, even if he teases us sadistically with promises of "Maybe it'll be my next film -- I'm developing it."
Kodak film from 1966 develops faster.
I am one of those people -- a fan, if I'm being honest -- who really, really, really want to see how David's story resolves and how the Xenomorph actually comes into being, if that's even the point anymore. So you'll pardon me for going into Scott's latest film, The Dog Stars, with a critic's chip on my shoulder. I didn't expect to be thrilled, interested, or moved. I didn't expect to like it, even slightly.
You must be logged in to post a comment.