October 2nd can nearly be described as the day that Robert Pattinson and Phoebe Bridgers made 2026 history. With Pattinson’s movie run throughout the year and Bridger’s new album and unmatched tour, putting the two together almost made the movie Primetime unstoppable.
The trailers that started rolling out in early August made the anticipation for the film ever so exciting; seeing Pattinson originate a new role with a completely different personality was exhilarating. The trailer softly glazed over what all would be covered in the movie. With four years worth of content on the show, there was no telling which stories they would tell. Covering Chris Hansen’s controversial background with greed, coverups, and scandals; the opportunities were endless.
The real Chris Hansen had some opinions on the way both his show, and overall self was portrayed in the film. Building up to the release, Hansen was all over media platforms doing interviews about how he was hardly consulted when A24 made all of the content. He released many trailers building up to the film’s release to distract the public with his current streaming platform where he does similar work from his time with To Catch a Predator, just on his own terms. On top of all of that he even started to make a “mocking” of Pattinson, leading to some meme-able moments.
While Pattinson has been on a movie spree this year, that has come with all of its own memes, including Primetime. Many quotes of dialogue from the film have slowly become vocal stims for viewers like, “You see how this looks, right?” or, “It’s not just chat though, is it?” even, “Why don’t you have a seat right there?” From his mannerism and execution of his lines, he made the movie a classic for the year. Even moments from his role in “The Odyssey” bled into Hansen when performing certain lines, like yelling for “Decoy Dan.” There was a crossover throughout his work, however, it also stayed separate in different ways.
The soundtrack added another level to such a memorable movie. With an opening track of “London Bridge” by Fergie, the audience is immediately taken back to the 2000s era. With the score written by Ari Balouzian, it brought the eerie vibes to the screen perfectly, inching closer to catch every predator. But it wouldn’t be fair to talk about the soundtrack without mentioning Bridgers’ new song, “On Video,” as it closed the movie out with credits to sit and sulk into everything that director Lance Oppenheim threw at the audience.
Bridgers not only wrote a song for the film, but also earned an acting credit for the first time in her career by playing Del Harvey. She, along with Skyler Gisondo who played Dan Plum, both acted as decoys for the producers, drawing predators in and catching them on air. Bridgers kept her character mysterious and downplayed. So, even though she is such a huge star, it doesn’t take from other characters on the screen, which plays out harmoniously.
The cinematography done by David Bolen was fresh and unique. Creative choices he made drove discussion around the film’s overall look. The most known choice was to use a colonoscopy camera for specific shots to make some shots seem long and confusing. Other times, there were strong hues of blue and red to make a scene even eerier, on top of the content. The overall grainy and warm shots throughout the entire film also encapsulate the 2000s vibe clearly and comfortably.
The movie as a whole was just outstanding, with each aspect of talent across the board. However, one thing seemed to set it off ever so slightly. Roughly five minutes before the credits hit, there is a perfect place to end the film with all of the cameras from their current “catch,” slowly turning off. It would have been a nice transition straight to the credits to realize that the show went downhill after that, leading to its ending. The last scene they kept was Gisondo’s character finally receiving a Screen Actors Guild membership, after all of the work he did with the show. While it is a nice ending scene, it could have been better placed as an end credit scene, showing a longer time jump, and not separate from the content discussed in the movie.
Regardless of the ending, the movie was a standout for the year. Each hand in the movie was creative and exciting, leading to wonder where the film will place in the upcoming Oscar season. Will Pattinson take a leading award for this film or another, or none at all? That is for audiences to find out on March 14th.