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?
