When we look back at Robert Pattinson’s 2026, it will be cited alongside Jim Carrey’s 1994 and Thomas Mitchell’s 1939 as one of the most successful single years an actor has ever produced.

“Primetime” follows the television host Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) as he tries to get his show “How to Catch a Predator” to the top of the ratings charts in 2006. Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, Bokeem Woodbine and Alex Winter also star, as Lance Oppenheim makes his narrative directorial debut.

I never watched “Predator” growing up, though I do remember always seeing proos for it during football season and have since watched all the famous clips and memes. Robert Pattinson is one of my favorite working actors and any film that is set in the 2000s is music to my nostalgic millenial ears, so “Primetime” has a lot going for it, even if it never cuts quite as deep as it could have.

In 1994, Jim Carrey starred in “Ace Ventura,” “The Mask,” and “Dumb and Dumber,” becoming the first actor to have three number one box office hits in the same year, and it is often seen as the best year an actor has ever had (Thomas Mitchell rivals it with his starring in the notable films “Gone with the Wind,” “Stagecoach,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and “Only Angels Have Wings” in 1939, winning an Oscar for “Mr. Smith”). So far in 2026, Robert Pattinson has starred alongside Zendaya in “The Drama” (an adult dram-com that did the rare feat of grossing over $100 million) and was a scene-stealer in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” and he still has the villian role in “Dune: Part Three” due out in December.

Long ago having shed his “the shiny vampire from ‘Twilight'” persona, Pattinson continues to embody every role that he takes on. His Chris Hansen is equally driven by ratings and a contempt for adults who prey on kids, and you can tell he loves being able to mix these two passions (when one predator is pleading for Hansen to not put him on TV, Pattinson does the tiniest little facial twitch to suppress a smile; he gets off to seeing these men beg). There are several humorous vocal stims too, whether it’s grunting like an ape at his producer (Merritt Wever, in a calm yet cold role) or shouting for his decoy to get into the room (Skyler Gisondo, who gives an understated and vulnerable performance). I wish the film had given Pattinson a little more to do with the psyche of Hansen, or have him begin as a normal television host and descend into egomania instead of pretty much starting there, but it is certainly a performance that stands out.

The film uses a lot of neon colors and lighting, as well as the illusion of film grain (although it was shot digitally and then transferred to a 16mm print), and it gives the film a dreamy sense and keeps it engaging to look at (even if it makes things feel more like the 90s than 2006).

There are plenty of opportunities for the film to commentate on things like vigilante justice (“TCAP” was often accused of prioritizing making moments for engaging television over doing things by the legal book), post-9/11 America’s growing obsession with reality TV instead of sitcoms, or the mental and emotional toll playing the role of the young victims had on actors like Gisondo, but it doesn’t really do much with these ideas. Much like an Aaron Sorkin script, the filmmakers seem less concerned with historical accuracy or serving as a true biopic than they are telling a story. I’m sure Chris Hansen was not as vampire-like as the film depicts him as, and at the end of the day he did perform a service that had a net-positive impact on the world, though clearly Pattinson and director Lance Oppenheim felt that making him into an anti-hero character would be more interesting from a narrative perspective.

“Primetime” features a larger-than-life performance from Robert Pattinson and some more subdued work from his supporting cast, and the behind-the-scenes bits of the “How to Catch a Predator” productions are interesting and at times darkly comedic. I would have liked for the film to either lean into the darkness a little more (like “Nightcrawler”) or be a straightforward “movie about movies,” but the film has plenty enough going for it to be worth tuning into.

Critics Rating: 7/10