Robert Pattinson stars as Chris Hansen in Primetime, actor-turned-documentarian Lance Oppenheim's feature drama debut, which dramatises the making of the controversial 2000s US reality show To Catch a Predator. Premiering at the Venice film festival, the film is a heavy-footed, neon-lit noir-thriller that critic Peter Bradshaw finds unsure of what it wants to say about media exploitation or morality, despite a strong lead performance.

The show, which ran from 2004 to 2008, saw producers pose as children online to lure paedophiles to "sting houses", where Hansen would dramatically confront them before an arrest. Pattinson plays the preening host with relish, while Merritt Wever appears as a hard-bitten network executive and Skyler Gisondo as a young actor used as decoy bait. The film's real tension turns out to lie less in the sting operations than in office politics, ratings pressure and Hansen's personal indiscretions, culminating in a crisis that Bradshaw feels leaves unresolved questions about accountability. Primetime is out in the US on 25 September and in the UK on 30 October.