Primetime and all the images you see in this review are owned by A24
Directed by Lance Oppenheim
Oh boy, is this nostalgic in all the worst ways. Like many Millennials, I too went down the To Catch a Predator rabbit hole and watched the entire series half a dozen times during a semester at college. It’s a pretty ugly chapter in American television that frankly deserves a reexamination given how even more destructive our criminal justice system has gotten in the twenty years since, and I could hardly think of an actor I’d want to don the Chris Hansen stare than Robert Pattinson. This could very well be the best movie of the year, especially now that Millennials are starting to take over for the Boomers and so it’s our childhoods and early twenties that will be the subject matter of prestige films going forward. Is this a devastating yet necessary deconstruction of the Justice Served Humilitainment that To Catch a Predator set the standard for, or will this be a simple pantomime of a show that was better left in the past? Let’s find out!!
In the long ago days of the mid-2000s, there was a little show called To Catch a Predator hosted by journalist Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) that sought to stop predators from taking advantage of young children. That’s what it claimed to do anyway, but it’s clear that Hansen, his producer Andie (Merritt Wever), and the crew from Perverted Justice who help him set up these sting operations are not as altruistic as the slick marketing would have you believe; not with so much fame, money, and prestige on the line. The quest to stay on top ultimately requires bigger and bigger spectacle, which means more deranged predators and a new decoy to lure them in. Enter Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo), a young actor who didn’t seem to read the contract and finds himself in the middle of this parade of human misery, but perhaps with the right mindset and a little convincing from Chris, he can see this as a genuine calling that helps people instead of just another gig to pay the bills. Of course, this resolution will be truly tested when the crew get wind of a big fish out there on the pervert message boards; someone who isn’t just some boring loser but a genuinely connected and influential person who could cement the shows legacy and ensure its ratings domination. Will this be the show to define an era of television in all the ways that the team envisioned, or is this chaotic stab at punitive justice a cautionary tale for all of us? Can Dan put his feelings aside and accept his role as bait for these disturbed men, or will the artifice of it all leave him with scars that may never heal? Hey, maybe we’re just thinking about it too much. I mean what’s wrong with indulging in a little bit of justice every now and again?
As a critic, I usually have at least some idea of what I’m going to say before I even see the movie. No, not because I’m getting paid by Disney to say that the Spider-Man movie is pretty good, but because movies don’t exist in a vacuum, and there’s usually a story around it that’s worth discussing; especially with a movie like this that takes aim at a very specific moment in history. I was walking into the theater with at least half of my review already in my head, and yet after seeing it, I find that none of those ideas are the least bit relevant. Is that a good thing? To some, I imagine, as there is a subversive element to this that is rather interesting, but I feel like it’s not aiming in the right direction and somewhat misunderstands the moment in time it’s trying to talk about. Maybe this is just a thing that happens when you get older; at some point the stories you remember from your own life start getting told in ways that you don’t recognize. I thought I knew what I wanted a movie about To Catch a Predator to look like, and frankly, I’d still like to see the movie I had imagined because this movie is certainly not that. Still, that might be okay as a different perspective can lead to new ideas and unique observations. It takes as read the despicable nature of the show and doesn’t ask us to ever feel anything for most of the cast; allowing us to gaze with contempt at the nightmare playing out before us. There’s a palpable unease that permeates the entire movie which the actors do a fantastic job of portraying, and it all manages to tell us what’s going on without really having to tell us what’s going on; complemented by it sleazy and garish visual style which, coupled with the use of low quality cameras in some shots, makes it feel like a lost eighties era Peter Jackson movie. It’s a film that’s more about the vibes than the story, and I appreciate the attempts to visually and doggedly elevate material that could have been cold and smug in the wrong hands.
That said, I don’t think it manages to capture what To Catch a Predator was, and for a movie about To Catch a Predator, this seems like a significant oversight. The show was an American phenomenon and was utterly inescapable for a time. Even after its ultimate demise under horrible circumstances, it stayed relevant and fairly popular for several years. You never get the sense that this show is even liked by anyone outside of the most aggrieved scumbags, and while that sense of distance from proceedings does give us a unique vision if nothing else, it feels dishonest to what the show was and what we should learn from it. The thing is, the show felt like we were doing something good; that it was a positive force in the world and therefore we could indulge in the brutal and humiliating spectacle. There’s no sense of justice or even righteousness in the way this movie portrays the show, which is ultimately the conclusion we should come to, but it doesn’t feel like a proper exploration of this subject matter if it at least didn’t try to get the audience onboard at the start. The movie knows everything about this is gross, and we know everything about this is gross in hindsight, so why bother pretending is seemingly the ethos of the movie, and I feel that’s ultimately missing the forest for the trees.
Putting everything aside and trying to view this objectively and on its own terms, does the movie succeed in what it’s trying to do? Even from that perspective, I do feel like it’s a mixed bag as it gets in its own way far too many times. The pacing feels off as time seems to move and get stuck at odd intervals. If you have no idea who Chris Hansen was or have never seen To Catch a Predator, this would be a poor introduction to either, and yet so much of the moment to moment mechanics of what is happening, why it’s happening, and when it’s happening rely on you already knowing certain things about the premise. There’s also a poor sense of time throughout the movie as it feels like we’ve barely even started the run of episodes in the new time slot, the titular Primetime, when the network threatens to pull them off the air. It feels arbitrary and hastens the pace in a way that doesn’t sit right, as if the film is anxious about losing our interest before getting to the finale. Thankfully, it does end in a gut-wrenching third act that captures the mania and depravity that ultimately led to the tragic end of the show. It captures that moment so perfectly that it nearly makes up for the rest of the film’s meandering plotting and gives it’s aggressively one note condemnation a stronger payoff than it otherwise would deserve.
To Catch a Predator is something we should look back on with critical eyes and a fair amount of shame, and to make it such a small story about specific weirdos behind the scenes is interesting but does not do the subject matter justice. An artist is certainly not required to showcase a particular point of view or even be accurate to the history, but the reality of the subject matter can’t be discounted whole cloth when you’re using those names and concepts; at least without opening yourself up to criticism. Is it a good movie? I think so, especially with such a strong third act and it’s extremely captivating visual style, but the story lacks a genuine sense of impact because it tells us exactly what it thinks from the outset and just hammers that home for the entire runtime. Maybe that’s the way that the kids these days see the Bush years; just one never-ending string of embarrassing and grim antics before social media streamlined and turbocharged our worst instincts. I suppose that’s a fair enough assessment, but there are still more compelling ways to go about exploring it.
