The first full-length trailer for Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime just dropped, and I’m honestly stunned by this thing.
Going into this movie, I already felt like there was at least one guarantee: we were going to get an incredible Robert Pattinson performance. Pattinson has been on such an absurd generational run lately that at this point, I’ll watch him do pretty much anything. But the question was whether Primetime itself was going to be good enough to match him. If it was, then suddenly you’re looking at a movie with some serious awards potential.
After this trailer? Yeah. I think we might have something here.
The trailer is chaotic as hell, and Pattinson looks completely unhinged in the role of Chris Hansen. Which, honestly, feels perfect. Hansen was an eccentric, strange television personality, and To Catch a Predator was an absolutely bizarre concept for a television show in the first place. This was a show about confronting suspected predators on camera and, somehow, it was being packaged as primetime entertainment. The whole thing was strange. Hansen had his catchphrases, his mannerisms, the whole shtick. There was something almost surreal about watching it.
And now we’re getting a movie about the guy behind it.
It also feels like Primetime is arriving at a pretty fascinating moment culturally. The Epstein story and everything surrounding it have put conversations about wealthy and powerful people, exploitation, and sexual abuse right back into the center of the culture. So a movie about To Catch a Predator suddenly feels weirdly timely.
And then you have Robert fucking Pattinson at the center of it.
I genuinely think Pattinson is one of the most exciting actors working today. Maybe my favorite actor in the world right now. And the run he’s on is ridiculous. The Batman. Oppenheimer. Mickey 17. The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three coming up. Here Comes the Flood with Denzel Washington. He’s filming the next Batman. It’s just an insane stretch of movies and performances.
No one is doing it like Pattinson right now.
And what really jumped out at me in this trailer is the voice. Pattinson is a fucking chameleon. The guy can completely transform himself through his voice alone, and whatever he’s doing here with Hansen is perfect. It doesn’t feel like Robert Pattinson doing an impression. It feels like he’s completely inhabiting this bizarre guy. The voice, the mannerisms, the weird energy—it’s all there.
The supporting cast looks great, too. The guy playing the first predator they go after in the trailer—Angourie Rice’s Spider-Man co-star Tony Revolori, who played Flash Thompson—looks absolutely perfect. The facial hair alone is fucking terrible in exactly the right way. He immediately looks like a guy you would absolutely not want anywhere near your kids. It’s such a small thing, but the casting and character work in this trailer already feels really sharp.
And I love the overall energy of this movie. Lance Oppenheim is primarily known for his documentary work, so seeing him take all of this strange, uncomfortable material and turn it into what looks like this chaotic, stylized drama is really exciting. There’s a real personality to the trailer. It looks weird. It looks funny. It looks uncomfortable. It looks intense.
It looks like a movie.
And that’s really all I wanted to see.
Because if Primetime is actually as good as this trailer suggests, then I think we have a legitimate awards contender on our hands. Especially for Pattinson. I already expected him to be great. Now I’m starting to think this could be one of those performances where the movie itself gives him the platform to do something really fucking special.
Oscar nomination? I’m not saying it’s happening.
But I’m absolutely saying I see the path now.
Pattinson is out of his mind. The voice work is perfect. The trailer is completely chaotic. The concept is bizarre in a way that feels incredibly relevant right now. And somehow, against all odds, this thing looks really fucking cool.
I’m stunned.
I cannot wait to see this movie.
