October Movies Part 3: Primetime & Sense and Sensibility

This weekend, my husband and I enjoyed a double feature designed to induce tonal whiplash. We enjoyed both movies but for very different reasons. Read on!

Primetime: Written by Ajon Singh and directed by Lance Oppenheim, this is a very dark, twisty, and weird movie that dramatizes the real-life events behind the show To Catch a Predator that aired from 2004-7. Robert Pattinson plays the show's host, Chris Hansen, an NBC journalist who is obsessed with his mission to conduct sting operations in partnership with a vigilante group called Perverted-Justice to catch child sex predators. A noble mission, to be sure, but as the movie develops, it becomes clear Hansen is a strange man who might be more obsessed with getting an Emmy for his work than actually doing some good.

This movie is shot in the style of To Catch a Predator, so there's a lot of grainy camera footage, and the visual storytelling is incredibly stylized and compelling. The performances by Pattinson and Merrit Wever (who plays Andie Bender, a fictional composite of the show's producers) are incredible, both of them playing unhinged, ambitious people who are desperate for acclaim and to defeat Lost in the ratings. As the show keeps scaling up, they become increasingly chaotic and frenetic in their pursuit for greatness, and this movie will definitely stoke your anxiety. Skyler Gisondo is also fantastic as Daniel Plum, a young actor who is hired to play the decoy that lures the predators into houses for the show. His evolution is remarkable, starting out as a fresh-faced ingenue who desperately wants to earn his SAG card, and then eventually realizing that maybe the work he's doing on this show is not entirely ethical. 

This subject material has been covered by meticulously researched documentaries and articles, so a lot of people thought this movie felt a little pointless in its fictional portrayal of real-life events. But as a newcomer to this story, I was thoroughly engaged. This is such an A24 film, stylistically heightened and creepy, with actors who are absolutely chewing the scenery and having a whale of a time. It's such a morally icky and dubious tale, but man it makes for great cinema.

Sense and Sensibility: Adapted by Diana Reid and directed by Georgia Oakley, this is a sumptuous Austen adaptation that will probably be reviled by the book purists but is wonderful if you're just here to watch an entertaining movie. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esme Creed-Miles play the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, who adore each other but have very different temperaments, with Elinor being more restrained and reserved, while Marianne wears her heart on her sleeve. Like most Austen heroines, they are rendered penniless when their father dies and the estate they live on is entailed to their half-brother John and his odious wife Fanny (Tom Brooke and Stacy Martin). After some uncomfortable months where they all try to live together as one big happy family, Elinor, Marianne, their younger sister, Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), and their mother (Caitriona Balfe) all move to a cottage rented out by a distant relative, Mrs. Jennings (Fiona Shaw), who is an extremely well-meaning but terrifically intrusive woman.

As the movie progresses, both sisters fall in love, and many complications ensue with undeclared feelings and broken engagements, scandal and drama. My husband had no idea what was going to happen, so I can say this is a very entertaining adaptation that gives each sister a very robust love story. It's been a long time since I read the book, but I do remember feeling like the suitors were not that thrilling. This movie definitely ups the stakes though, and there's a scene towards the end that was very dramatic but thoroughly delightful. I do feel like the ballroom dance sequences were excessively sexy - everything has gotten entirely too Bridgertonised in our modern age and some of these dance moves involved far too much contact. But hey, you gotta roll with the times!

This movie does a wonderful job of keeping the sisters' relationship front and center. Yes, they are pining away for some men, but the true love story is between these two women, who are struggling to understand each other given their vastly different ways of existing in this world, but who desperately want each other to be happy. The cinematography and score are all excellent, the costumes are sumptuous, the locations highlight the best of the English countryside. This movie hits all the right notes, and I'm sure Jane would be proud. Even if she did feel some elements were too imbued with sensibility than sense.