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| courtesy of A24 |
From the minute Primetime starts, we know we aren’t going to enjoy what we witness. Every second puts a bad taste in your mouth, especially as we know how this scene plays out. We see a man arrive at a house to hook up with an underage girl, while the camera crew and the decoy teen, really a fresh faced woman, get ready for the man to come inside the house. The situation is unsettling, how the scene plays out is uncomfortable, and we can’t tear ourselves away from this.
There is a disturbingly fine line that runs throughout between justice and exploitation. While the vigilante group believe they are doing the right thing and Chris Hansen acts as if he’s a saviour, the show’s producer Andie is probably the only one who is honest about what they’re all doing. This is for TV, she wants to make a great TV show, no matter the cost. The others just enjoy the chase, the entrapment and Hansen, the glory. Primetime hones in on the sensationalism that viewers seem to crave. Reality TV became popular for the same reason. Anyone who believes Reality TV is about reality is lying to themselves.
Despite the choices made throughout the film, and how they ultimately make us feel, Primetime aims to shock but not to surprise us as we the audience know full well what to expect. For those who aren’t aware of the real events may be slightly shocked by the climax of the film, leaving you with mixed feelings. But for certain, Pattinson is eerily fantastic as Hansen, slipping into this character, despite being based on a real person, Pattinson wears him like a second skin. Merrit Weaver also deserves praise (as always) as Andie the put upon questionable producer, as well as Skyler Gisondo as the decoy Dan who also rather serves as the most human amongst the crew and gives us another view on the madness he has to witness and partake in.
Primetime is vivid, upsetting, disturbing and not without fault. It would make a disturbingly good double bill with Nightcrawler. One hell of an evening that would be.