Ashley S

Just got out of Primetime and I have to say… this was even worse than I expected lmao It wasn’t just a Chris Hanson character assassination, but a paranoid Reddit-tier indictment of basically anyone who expresses condemnation of pedophilia in general. The pedophiles are largely portrayed sympathetically in comparison to Hanson’s savage sociopathy. The anti-pedophile characters are almost all shown as either bumbling idiots or secret predators themselves. At one very batshit point, Hanson’s murky conscience is challenged by a rabbi he catches in a sting who the audience is almost led to forget was there to rape who he thought was a little boy (promised to him 3000 years ago ofc). The climax of the film is a pedophile District Attorney killing himself after being aggressively pursued by Hanson and police. In those final moments, the pedophile is portrayed as an uncertain, misunderstood, almost innocent guy who, again, you’re nearly instructed to forget had been exchanging lewd messages with a child. The decoy he’d been speaking to is shown crying as he solemnly sings the pedophile Seasons of Love from the gay musical Rent over the phone in the lead up to the sting and suicide. While it was advertised as a critique of sensationalizing predator hunting, throughout the film Hanson’s desire to “use” pedophiles for his own “gain” was very clearly framed as the biggest sin. Even as I was leaving the theater, I overheard someone ask “was Chris Hanson really that evil?” The only saving grace of the movie was Robert Pattinson’s acting, which was 10/10 despite the overall narrative being shit.