Kulture Meltdown: Primetime (2026) — "You see how this looks, right?"

Come on in. I made cookies. You sure your parents aren't home? Who are you? I'm Chris Hansen and we're doing a story on adults who try to meet teens online.

Don't you ever just want to bleed them? Maybe what I do is a little worse. We're not going to get to number one without the absolute worst. Let's catch us a predator. No definition of bad.

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another crossover between the culture cast and movie meltdown i am one of your hosts of the i am one of your hosts and the host of the culture cast chris dashu and i am joined by the host of movie meltdown brian renfro hello hey brian wouldn't you do me a favor and take a seat uh no no that's okay i'll just stand over here you want to tell me what you're doing here brian I just heard there were cookies. Just here for cookies. Brian, it appears that you've been caught in a sting by... Not the first time. Good Lord.

On this episode of the, as Brian so lovingly referred to it, the Culture Meltdown, we are going to be taking a look at a new film that came out last Friday that is based on something that existed, well... in the mid, I guess, late 2000s, that I had the benefit of watching when it was on TV, like so many other people may have, or other people caught it after the fact. We're going to be talking about 2026's Primetime, which is a film... based on the film, or I guess the show, To Catch a Predator. So the film is directed by Lance Oppenheim on a script by A. John Singh. It is based on Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die, which is an article in Esquire by Luke Dietrich.

And the film stars Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen. the host of To Catch a Predator. It also stars, get this, Phoebe Bridgers, Skylar Gazzando, and Merritt Weaver, a bunch of other people as well. Alex Winter, who I talked to many moons ago, also shows up as a pedophile, which is just not a thing I had on my bingo card this year. Bokeem Woodbine's there, and Anna Faris as well. It is a film that has more in common with Zodiac than it does To Catch a Predator.

It is a film about the spectacle and whether or not the spectacle is worth it in the end, or do we, in fact, become the spectacle we are so much trying to avoid? So, Brian, I am very curious. What did you think about 2026's primetime? We will be spoiling the film eventually. but maybe not immediately. So spoiler free about a thing that happened in real life 20 years ago.

What did you think about prime time, Brian? I mean, other than the last, like, 20 minutes or so. I'm not sure exactly how much you can spoil. Like the rest of it is just a scenario that kind of keeps happening and a life that goes on and is weird and questionable. But other than that, yeah, there's not a whole lot of spoilers really, but it's hard to tell how much of this is real to begin with.

So spoiling fiction is just, I mean, again, like, yeah, I, yeah, it's the sport. Yeah. If you think there's going to be spoilers for this movie, it's probably not the movie for you to begin with. It's probably not the movie you're thinking it is. Well, my initial take on it, and this was weird because it was after I saw it, but before I started kind of even looking at any of the details of it.

And then once I found out how I felt about it, I dug into it a little bit and just found out, well, it's weird because my take on it matches one other person's, Chris Hansen. Because as I got into the minor amount of digging into this, I did. There is a section that came out that is Chris Hansen talking about the movie after he's seen it. And he described it as detached from reality. And though he acknowledged that he is biased due to being the subject of the film, he said, according to Hansen, he wasn't sure what the point of it was.

And that's kind of where I landed from the get-go. because I'm watching it and everything about it is top notch, like as a movie, like it is shot amazing. Performances are great. Like everything is just big budget head to the movies. This is what you want to see. But then once you get into the story and our characterization, more or less, I'm just like, By the end, I'm just like, what?

What are we doing? I'm just kind of like, I'm not sure what we're supposed to take from this. So I feel like that's where we're going to have to dig into this. We can hit specific points here and there along the way, but I feel like the bigger questions are more of what we have to sort of tackle on this thing. And I don't know that we're really going to, but that was my main take is what are we doing here?

Well, and I wanted to ask you kind of before I give my answer, because I think this is also the part of the question that's important to answer. What is your exposure to To Catch a Predator, to the original show, to the reality TV series, which is, I guess, the best show? explanation for what it would be called? What is your exposure to it? Because I have a very different exposure than you do, I'm assuming, but I think that also might factor into what the expectations are from watching this film. Mine is very minimal.

I think I heard about it when it came out. I probably saw ads for it. I've seen clips here and there. I knew it way more in the geek world as a joke that you could always work in a version of the alien versus predator predator. And then this this weird guy would come and sit down and talk to him.

And like so that joke became probably more, you know, of what I thought of over the years than the actual show itself. because I definitely did not sit down and make it appointment television to watch it. I just knew of it. I saw bits and pieces of it, but never really paid that much attention to it. I feel like, and so this was a thing I had wanted to do earlier in the year, and it might still happen. I had wanted to cover To Catch a Predator, the TV series.

I wanted to cover the original run of the show, and then there was a subsequent Hanson milking his fame is what it ends up being. I mean, it's kind of what it ends up being. As he continues to do. As he kind of continues to do in his, and you know, I think the film has done nothing but keep him in the public kind of conversation far much, much so than he might have ever anticipated, thought, or prepared himself for. I guess, you know, as someone who is a, would you say, I think a phrase that is weird to say is a fan of To Catch a Predator, but I find To Catch a Predator interesting because it is a show that the show itself is weird because it is it is it is effectively entrapment.

And I'm not defending pedophiles by imagination. I mean, this is kind of like the this is kind of like the I can condemn Israel without condemning. The Jewish people like that. The show itself to catch a predator is really problematic. Like it is very problematic.

And the people that were involved in to catch a predator, the predators, the people that were being caught were being entrapped by Chris Hansen and his cadre of people that he either worked with or hired to do this. Like the, this was not existing in this capacity beforehand, but, And I have a really weird reaction to that because it's just, it makes what's already lurid seem even more lurid because the way we're doing things also equally seems kind of lurid. And, you know, I like that this film is kind of like, well, at the center of it, we have to have Chris Hansen being like. Guess what? I don't care.

And, you know, it's kind of this like doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on what does it mean to, to have a bias, take that point of view and stick with it, regardless of the blowback or the criticism or the debate or any debacle that might come out of it. And I don't know if I personally have any strong enough held beliefs that would cause me to feel this way about something that is as not problematic, I think is the wrong word, but kind of Lurid, I think, is. The best word. It's a weird direction to take it, you know? I mean, the whole thing is weird.

Like, to cover To Catch a Predator in a mainstream format is weird because To Catch a Predator is a show about catching pedophiles on TV. All the guys do themselves no favors in terms of not looking like pedophile freakazoids. Which is, I mean, that's the problem. Again, like, you know, when we talk about pedophiles and pedophilia, they're often the lowest common, like, rung of jokes because, like, they are, for most people, and I think you and I might agree on this, like, myself included they're like the worst of the worst they're treated the worst of the worst in prison like the way child molesters are treated in prison is worse than a normal prisoner because the other prisoners don't even fuck around with that and so it's what we're talking about is already pretty charged and you can see that with the chris hanton character he feels like, you know, he feels like a righteous character, right?

Like what he's doing is righteous. And there's like a self-righteous, righteous and self-righteous. But I think that's the thing that makes it such an interesting movie is that I don't know about Chris Hanton, the person I've seen interviews with him. I've seen things where he talks and he just kind of seems kind of like the character in the movie. He kind of seems like he's a self-important guy who thinks what he's doing is God's work.

And I don't know that it's not, but the way he's going about doing it is not... normal. It's not that it's not normal it's just it's the way he goes about doing it it's just it makes it so much ickier than it already is and it's already really icky to begin yeah it's it's already horrible in and of itself that that it exists in general that there is a need for something like this to happen in some capacity but Yeah, I think I think that was and again, I don't know if that was my initial take on the movie. I think that became more of the trying to figure out who this guy is that sort of followed it after after watching the movie. And that, I think, was my big question in like the last couple of days.

It's just like it's not so much that you needing to stop this from happening because I feel like we can all get on board with that as a concept. I don't think that that's up for debate, but the problem is the way you go about doing it, it almost trivializes what is going on in reality and makes it just kind of part of the punchline almost. Well, and not even the the act of doing it or the way that he's doing it. I think it's more that's what these last couple of days of thinking about it is this led me to is the why you like that's the part I'm like, why are you like you have dubbed yourself this this superhero essentially that set out to save children? And I'm like, it'd be different, especially once then we're getting into a dramatic retelling of it. if we got to some weird dark secret about him.

And like, if the, if somewhere in the middle, we had some flashback to like nine year old version of, of this guy and his weird cousin trying to take him up to the tree house or something, you'd be like, Oh. I think that would have been too much. Like, I think that would have been, I don't know, on the nose. I get it. But I guess to.

Your point, like the film, I, I do feel like part of what I walked away from the. Movie with is the, why not just go watch to catch a predator? That too. I mean, I'm not like advocating people go and hunt down to catch a predator because it's pretty gross and lurid. And the things that they're saying on like national TV, like, can I rape you anally?

Like Jesus fucking Christ. That was unbleaped. Chris Hansen is saying these things like that is pretty, again, like I'm not going to yuck someone's yum, but the context in which it's being said is like, pretty awful. It's hardcore. It's being said to a child.

That's the problem. And it's wild to me that that was a successful television show on prime time. On prime time. I mean, the title of the movie alone sells why this movie is being made. Because if the show had never been on prime time, that meant it was not successful and that nobody would have been watching it to the extent that people were watching it, that we can have a movie about it because it was a cultural touchstone for even a brief moment.

Sometimes a brief moment is better than not at all. Well, this was like, again, sticking with the like, why this guy? Like if there was some sort of, not even maybe that horrible of a story, but like if he had something that led him to that, which I did very minimal amount of checking, but at least for him, I don't think he has any personal version of a God awful story in his youth. But then I was like the best, like you want an action. I can Walsh type thing as well.

And that's what I was just about to say. I was like the, the most direct contact version I could come up with. That was a similar type of a situation, but it came from a real place is John Walsh. And that was like, I was like, that is a guy who basically kind of that same thing eventually found himself in the middle of what would become reality television before we knew what reality television would become. Um, and like found himself in the center of this show and this idea.

And he was, again, trying to get the bad guys in quotes there. But it was based in something real and like heart wrenching. Like it's, you know, the reason he's John Walsh is because his child was abducted and murdered. And like he spent so much time in the middle of that case that it then just sort of In the real world became like, well, then he helped them, you know, start the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And then that became let's turn this into a TV show, which eventually, you know, America's Most Wanted is kind of cheesy and interesting.

It's not quite as creepy as to catch a predator, but like it, it definitely is very sensationalized at moments, almost kind of silly as time went on that like you're watching it more for the let's go watch him tackle this drunk guy, you know, equally as much, which became cops really. That became the spinoff version of the, the, the dumber version, but it at least was, was based in reality and based in something that you like totally understood why this guy was standing there. Like, yes, he turned it into a career and he eventually became very successful in that field. But like, it was based in reality and based in something horrible that happened to him that gave it merit, that gave it like a real reason that he felt like he needed to be standing up there and, and felt like he needed to take charge of this situation because he'd lived through something that horrible.

So now we switch gears to this guy, and you're like, okay, this is not a minor thing. This is, again, you're talking about the stuff he's reading to these people. This is knee-deep in horror. Like, this is a nightmare. And it's week in and week out for all of these kids that are being thrown into this scenario.

And you're willingly taking yourself there every episode. And it was like, to me, that's weird. So it's like if it came with a reason, if it came with a specific, you know, instigating situation, I would understand. But the fact that I don't know that it does is weird to me. Well, they try to make it a kind of fictional story.

Let's make a fictional bridge, right? So we have the scene in the film with Skylar Gazzando and Pattinson where he's talking about, you know, when he was in India and he was, you know, investigating child disappearances, which did happen. I mean, that's real. That is a real thing. He is a real journalist.

Ray is a real investigative journalist. I mean, and I think that that's What the film was trying to make the case was the inciting incident that caused Chris Hansen to feel the way that he does, which is even funnier because the framing of that is the white savior going to save the people of India. Yes, of course. And then you take the metaness of it, which is a British actor playing a white American hero. going to india to save the children and. Going to india to save them and then he doesn't which i think is the thing that is i i think for me the zodiac of the film is you know it's it's all about the pursuit of something that isn't actually there and that's the thing right i mean that's ultimately for me the thing about to catch a predator that nobody talks about at least in any sort of like high-level capacity is, yes, you are taking these predators off the street, but it is honestly, and this is the reality that nobody wants to talk about, those are but drops in a very large bucket.

Oh, yeah. Unfortunately, yes. You're not doing much of anything. You are, but you aren't. I mean, you're at least calling attention to it... you're maybe raising that awareness to a kid that might be sitting there on the internet going, hey, wait a minute, I'm talking to this weird person on the internet.

So I would hope somewhere... a light went off on some kid's head and he was like, oh, that closed up the, whatever chat room he was in at the moment was like, nope, this is too creepy. I'm out of here. But what kid is watching that move? Well, I'm saying in general, like, yeah. But my point is like, it's for adults.

It's for like, the problem is, is you can't, it's hard to make that statement because to catch a predator is for adults. So I don't even know what to catch a predator's point was to remind adults that there are perverted adults out there. It's this- It's a lurid thing. It's like it's it's being able to get as close as you can to leer kind of into this world that's disgusting and icky and gross. I mean, it's for me to catch a predator is in a lot of ways like the original true crime like TV show of a certain kind.

Like it is of a certain kind. And those things, I would say you want to talk about a comparative now. pretty much anything Ryan Murphy's in the world of like his monster series. Like that's what this is kind of the proto of. It's like, it's just going to be an icky for icky sake and engaging with the ickiness in a safe capacity is much more than people are going to want to ever do in an unsafe capacity, which is the reality. Well, and again, I feel like it's giving people who already feel very superior about their moral standings as they sit at home on their couch and watch this and then shake their head and be like, see, look at these horrible.

And then again, I can just see them like pinning down the type of people that they feel do this. And again, not that the people actually doing it aren't horrible, but I feel like they're not real specific. They're going to be generalizing about who these people are and why they should judge them. I feel like it's a very sit at home and judge people sort of a situation, which again, the specifics, yes, they need to be judged and punished and taken off the streets. But in the grand sense, it seems like a very self-righteous situation of like, I am so much better than them as I sit here on my couch and drink my soda and like, pass judgment on these horrible people on TV, where meanwhile, they're probably doing equally as horrible things in their home.

You know, everybody who wants to be that judgy, I feel like a lot of times is doing something horrible of their own at home and doesn't talk about it. So I don't know. I just always have issues with people that are that are that self-righteous and like are so ready to pass judgment on anybody before they even hear what the scenario is. They've already made up their mind before they walk into that kitchen. Before they even bust this person, they already know how they feel about it, which granted in this case, it's always a horrible scenario.

But I don't know. I feel like that's the type of grown up person. Again, I'm kind of using quotes there. adult that is sitting at home watching this is somebody who has already totally made up their mind about how they feel and how much better they are than the people that are out there in the world versus the handful of other people that are also there just for the salaciousness of it. And they kind of want to feed off of the lurid situation that you're knee deep in in the middle of this thing. And I 100% agree because it, I don't know, I guess the show always felt so weird to me because, again, I can't understand which side.

Of the aisle I'm supposed to be on with the show. Because again, as someone watching the show in 2026, it's hard when we now have this weird relationship with cops and law enforcement. And I think the film does a really good job of reinforcing our kind of weird relationship with law enforcement in 2026. Because Bokeem Woodbine's character in all of that is very much what did end up happening. I mean, they were very gung-ho about...

We're going to go to this guy's house and we're going to be there and we're going to go against protocol here of what we had normally been doing, like not to defend their initial practices of like essentially constructing a mousetrap for pedophiles that we get to. I mean, it's a mousetrap. It's a mousetrap. It definitely is. It's a mousetrap.

It's a trap through and through. By design, it is a trap. Right. The people who are getting trapped need to be trapped. I understand that.

And I agree with that. But it is definitely a trap from the get go. Right. And that's and again, you know, when we talk about, you know, if you want to talk about a mouse trap, there are better ways to catch mice. If you're trying to catch mice, people try tend to people who are trying to be humane about catching mice don't catch mice with glue traps. because those are the most inhumane way possible.

And as far as I'm concerned, to catch a predator is a glue trap. I mean, it is a very crude way of doing things, but at the same time, it does get things done. For all the harm that it causes, which it does cause harm in a lot of ways, it did get people that were you know, quote, looking for sex with minors, unquote, off the street. Again, then you go into the idea of a thought crime. And, you know, the crimes that are committed are the ones that get sent to prison and jail were the ones sending naked pictures of themselves.

None of them got to do anything. That's the other thing that's kind of entrapment is there is no real world of anything that was going to happen. There was never a minor on the other end of things. which is the part that's entrapment and weird and it's the weird optics of adults chatting with other adults pretending to be 14 year olds and then sharing pictures of real 14 year olds sometimes fake 14 year olds other times to get those adults to do certain things that's weird i mean just describing that is weird it's it's all weird yeah. It's all weird and layers of weird It is. And again, it's a question of how much of that weirdness are you willing to accept and be okay with?

And in Chris Hansen's case, kind of internalized, and I think that that's the other kind of thing I want to talk about here just at the opening of this episode. Robert Pattinson is just... Talk about a guy who... I mean, I love him as an actor. He genuinely has been one of my favorite actors for quite some time.

But... This movie, I think this movie would be a joke without an actor of his capabilities in it, because I just don't think that the main role works without someone who is able to kind of evoke Chris Hansen without doing a spot like spot on dead up imitation. but also be thoughtful enough to take this role in kind of a direction that understands that this is a kind of nuanced, complex situation that isn't necessarily just cut and dry. Which, I mean, obviously, that is why this movie is getting made, is because there is a lot of nuance to this situation. But I think having someone like Robert Pattinson as your lead helps, because he is just an immensely talented actor. Well, and he's not afraid to make it weird.

Like, that's such an important part of what this movie becomes anyway. I don't know that it even makes sense, really, in the movie, the way that they present everything. But if it were just cut and dry... I don't think it does, actually. This movie's kind of nonsensical in a lot of ways.

Yeah, I definitely will get to that eventually. But just as his performance, like, if it was just cut and dry and you could get a very, you know, upstanding... clean-cut actor and put him in there and he's just gonna be like Mr. All-America and try to, you know, be the hero that he thinks that he is the whole time. That's one thing. But you get into the way, like, from the first frame we're spending time with this version of him.

Like, he is just weird and creepy and self-centered and, like, just, like, all of the trappings of your normal, like, person that would be hosting a TV show anyway... But then you add in all the layers of the creepy crime element and the entrapment and all of this other stuff on top of that. And he just seems, like, extra skeezy. Like, he's just so creepy about it all. And yet, that's our, in quotes once again, our hero.

Like, that's the one we're supposed to, certainly our protagonist. And, like, you're like, I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about this guy. I'm certainly not comfortable with him. He's a weird guy. Like, so...

That's that's a strange place to set your movie. But I will give credit that like Robert Pattinson is an amazing actor and like it has taken me a long time to get over. You know, he came from a weird place and it was an uphill battle for people to take him seriously. And I was one of those that kind of wrote him off early on. And then. time after time he kept proving himself i'm like no this guy i mean he's a legit actor and like above and beyond a lot of other actors out there he has just turned into one of our better you know i guess now not even that young of an actor anymore but of his generation he's kind of right there at the top of the of the glass.

Which is very funny given who i would consider is also at the top who is also kind of i guess just kind of dismissed on based on what they worked on i mean his other you know the other star from Twilight that he was opposite I mean Kristen Stewart also amazing actress like it's very funny because yeah when you think about the two or three of them if you want to count Taylor Lautner who I think. Is Who disappeared? Well, to be fair, Taylor Lautner is the one of the three, right? Like he's the, he is the one of the three. There had to be one of them that was percentage wise.

This is too much. I can't do this. Well, and I think he, I think he was the one who is that. I mean, he did what, a couple movies afterwards and then he's, He was in something recently and that was about it. Like it's, it's very, it's very weird to me that Taylor Laudner is the one that wasn't the blow up star.

Cause he's the one that is like the traditionally good looking one. Yeah. It seems like if, if you looked at those three at the time, we're like, well, obviously this guy, you know, he's going to be an action star two years from now. Like, you know, And no, it's Robert Pattinson. And I think, you know, when I think of Robert Pattinson's career post-Twilight, and again, you know, to be fair, he was also in Harry Potter before Twilight, which I think is.

Yeah, yeah. Which again, I will include that as one of his up-and-coming kid roles. But again, it took a long time for all of those Harry Potter kids to be taken seriously too. It's true, yeah. And again, some of them still haven't been and maybe are more so than they deserve to.

Emma Watson, unquote. What has she been good in? Well, she's retired now for that very reason because she couldn't really... catch a break and like wouldn't be taken seriously and wouldn't be left alone about the Harry Potter nonsense of it all to the point that now she's kind of half retired for the moment. So I don't know. I think she had talent and just again, it came at a bad way.

Like all of these kid actors have stuff thrown at them and like not everybody survives. It's just it's a lot to deal with. I, I guess I had seen her in enough stuff post Harry Potter. I was not, I was not impressed with her in beauty and the beast and other similar things. I mean, again, like it's whatever, like that's, That's a me issue.

You know, that's a me thing. I can readily admit that. But at the same time, you know, I saw her in that. I saw her in the circle. I saw her in a handful of things where I was just like, you know, that's fine.

She's fine, I guess. The only one of those three that really went anywhere and escaped that velocity was. Rupert Grint. I'm just kidding. It's Daniel Rhett.

Rupert Grint didn't even, Rupert Grint did, I guess, just about as much as Emma Watson. He's trying again. Like, yeah, he kind of dropped off for a while and now I've I've seen him showing up and stuff again lately. So I think, I think they just need a breather every once in a while. I'll be like, all right, maybe, maybe we'll try to make this work again.

Hold on. Which I mean, again, you know, even with someone like Robert Pattinson, you know, to go back to him, the things I think of when I think of the things that he worked on early on that are, I guess the films that resonate with me were the ones that he was doing with Cronenberg. Cause he, cause I think him working with Cronenberg really put me kind of in the mindset of like, okay, this is like a, this is a serious act. And I think that was a conscious choice with him because you saw as he was coming out of it, like, everybody trying to escape from that franchise was just like, oh man, nobody's taking it seriously. So he like stepped up and was like, no, I'm going to do like almost exclusively like art house movies, indie movies, like challenging directors, like weird roles.

Like I think he specifically set out to be like, no, I want to be taken seriously as an actor, even if it means, so again, you didn't see him jump on to do a bunch of action movies that I'm sure they've Would have thrown at him. I don't know that he would have been good at it, but like he he could have become just a regular I'm a handsome leading man kind of a role and done rom coms and action movies. But like none of that is what he wanted. Like you see that lineup of movies he did after he left that that era. And he was just like everything was him trying to prove himself to people.

And eventually it is. I mean, I think we know he's not an action star, given the fact that he is not being in the running for being cast for James Bond and he's a British actor. And anytime he's anything and the fact that I think the only action thing he was in other and I wouldn't even, you know, the Batman movie as we have it with his character is not very actiony. Yeah, it's the broodiest of all the Batman movies. Which is good.

Like, great. Like, I'll take it. And he's great at it. Like, he is playing it the way that that version of Batman needs to be. Would you say his most action-y role is that fucking Tenant?

That goddamn Chris Nolan movie that nobody saw? Movies are back in theaters, y'all. Tenant is here. If you're not counting all that vampire baseball, then yeah, probably Tenant. They're playing baseball.

But go see Nosferatu playing in baseball. I mean, I would only count. Nosferatu baseball, vampire baseball. That is, that's what's missing from our timeline is a, a film comic book series of people just playing baseball, but they're all vampires. So just take that stupid scene from twilight and expound upon it even further.

I mean, if you want to get people out to the, the old stadium there. I feel like that's going to do it. I don't want to go see a regular baseball game, but you had vampires in. Well, all right. Now maybe I might be on board.

Now stepping up to the plate, he's the Chinese jumping vampire. By God, people, we get a grand slam. Yep. I'd watch, you know, I do like baseball though. So I guess that's a, that's a bad comparison.

It's, it's funny though, because, you know, I do think Robert Pattinson has been able to evade the vampire role kind of mark that that left on him, which is not the case with all those people. I mean, there are people from those movies that I, you know, again, Taylor Lautner, I think is the one that I think of that just didn't really ever do anything. A lot of those other people were already actors before that, you know, those Twilight movies came out, you know, Jamie Campbell, Bauer, Michael Sheen, but you know. Doing totally different stuff. So I think that's what saved him too, is he, the other thing he could have done if he, other than trying to be like leading man kind of thing would be like, okay, go down the horror, like just nothing but horror.

Oh, okay. I thought you were saying like go down the YA route completely. Yeah. Oh, but again, I don't even know that that would have worked. Because by the time they were done, he was kind of too old for that anymore.

So at that point, he could have leaned hard into the, well, let's just go with the horror angle and like did nothing but like straight to DVD horror movies for the next 10, 12 years. And like he probably would have earned enough to scrape a living, but like he certainly wouldn't be the status he is now. So again, he made the right call of the several ways he could have gone. But Brian, what about Skylar Gazondo? He's the forever teenager.

He never ages. You mean star of Rob Zombie's Halloween? Jesus Christ. I know. Isn't that funny?

Isn't that just, that's the best part. It's like, how often does one get to talk about Skylar Gazondo? Well, other than getting to talk about him in Vacation, which, by the way, great movie. I don't know if you've ever seen it. Pretty good reboot, surprisingly, of a franchise that didn't need to be rebooted.

Just recently watched it, actually. Somehow I missed it when it first came out. And then lately I've been like, how have I not? I've seen the whole rest of this dumb series. Like, how have I not seen this one?

It was pretty good, right? I'm like, yeah. I was kind of like, I kind of agree. I was like, did I need another one? Not necessarily.

Yeah. Is this terrible? No, it's not. It's actually got some really funny stuff in there. So, yeah, it's not bad.

And Skylar Gazondo, I think, is one of the funnier parts of that movie because he plays such a funny straight man. And I think that that's, again, that's kind of the character he plays in this movie is he's playing kind of the straight man to Chris Hansen. which is like, I mean, he's, he's, he's the audience, his eyes. I don't like it. It's just so it's weird. Cause like you could have just made the movie about him.

And like, really you could like, if you really want to make like an Oscar bait movie, that's the movie you make. Right. You make the movie about like, you take this, this, this situation, this scenario of to catch a predator or a fictional to catch predator and And you have it be about the bait person and it'd. Be about them. And like, you know, it's like, it'd be like Mickey Rourke's the wrestler.

And you see what I mean? Like, it's like something like that where it's like in this icky world of weird things where maybe this is more prominent than just to catch a predator. And it's like, now this person's directly involved in it. Like something like that. Like I, I don't know.

Like it's, it's weird. Cause Skylar Gazando is such a endearing actor. He's just kind of has this like endearing quality to him that I can't help, but enjoy everything that he's in. But in this movie, I'm just like you, it's almost like there's not enough of him. That's what I was.

I mean, by, by the end, that's one of the takeaways I had was just like, really? I think by the end, like he's our only like real go-to character. It's like, We don't really spend enough time with the rest of them. It's like we've got a little bit on a few of them. The other ones are just kind of in the background.

And then Hanson's such a weirdo that you never really get a handle on what's going on there. But like through and through, like Skylar just delivers this really like endearing performance. And you care about this character from the second he walks in. And you're like, I know this is fake, but I also don't want anything to happen to him. So like, can we make sure he's OK in this?

And like he still even when it's fake is so far over his head, like the second he gets in there. And like by the end, it's like you're watching him. So he does sort of have an arc of like. coming to terms with what he's doing and trying to wrap his head around what the purpose of it is. And then by, you know, really all he wants after all of this, he just wants to be a real actor. He just wants to get his SAG card.

And like, there's our finale, not to jump too far ahead, but like, that's the, that's the other bookend of this story is like, well, I mean, at least that, you know, we, we got that. There's a good thing that came out of this. Which is, I mean, it's funny, like, that's the stakes of the movie. The stakes of the movie are our main character getting his sag. Yeah, it kind of is by the end of it, because I feel like everything else is a wash.

Like, yeah, we kind of busted some of these guys along the way, but it still feels like, I don't know. It still feels gross and it still feels weird and it still feels like we were in such a weird scenario every step of the way that we don't know how we even feel about most of what was going on the whole rest of the time. But you want to side with this kid and you like what he's doing. And again, he didn't even have anything to do with this. He just wanted to do musical theater and become an actor.

Yeah. He wanted nothing to do with any of this nonsense. So again, he was innocent of it all coming in. He seems like the most innocent person you've ever met. And then by the end, we just want him to go have a career and get a sitcom and have a nice life for God's sakes.

And like, that's, that's kind of our through line through the whole thing. Well, and I also like that kind of what I would say is one of the more impactful scenes towards the end of the film where Chris Hansen is just having a breakdown. A complete breakdown. A complete breakdown. And Skylar Gazando steps in and does his job for him.

I love that the film doesn't, say either way, but for me, the implication is anybody. Could have done Chris Hansen's job. Yeah, and less creepy, probably. Yeah, and less of kind of in a aggressively dickish way. And that's the thing that, you know, I think Pattinson really captures with the Chris Hansen character because it is a character I mean look he's portraying a real person but portraying a real person is not in fact play like that's not the real person like maybe he's shades of that and he kind of again the things that I've seen having more exposure to it than you do like or you've chosen to even like Chris Hansen just this kind of same kind of like he's self important but he's also a journalist and he's a like news figure and a media personality like I kind of It's not that I don't blame him, but it's one of those things where I'm like, well, yeah, like, duh.

So it's I think for me, it's one of those things where Chris Hansen is. is a emotionally kind of unavailable character and That is what makes everything about Skylar Grisando's character so interesting is he is the opposite. He's like too emotionally available. And he's too kind of like willing to be, I guess, human around these people. And so many of these people are not really human in any capacity. I mean, Merritt Weaver, no.

Robert Pattinson, no. phoebe bridgers sort of i mean we get one scene between her and skylar gizondo and it's it's an interesting scene but what's weird is like i i almost wish that i could have like another half hour this movie like i. Just switch gears like i i was super interested in the phoebe bridgers character right yeah like give me more of the lead up or more of the in between or it didn't i mean i appreciate needing to be a lean hour and 45 minutes but like Honestly, what the movie is doing is so interesting and weird and kind of unique and novel. I want more of it. It's so kind of unlike a lot of things that you can go and watch because, again, Lance Oppenheim is a documentarian and it's kind of documentary film.

It's like documentary and film adjacent. It's kind of this weird in-between where... I don't know. I want more of it. And an hour and 45 minutes is not enough for an idea this interesting.

That's essentially taking on something that, again, kind of existed in a very short period of time for only a short period of time. Well, and I feel like you could have spread it out a little more because I feel like we spend so much time With Pattinson which don't get me wrong like I said his performance is great but like we don't really get anywhere like he's just when we meet him he's acting weird and when we leave he's acting weird and like we don't we don't know anything about him really we don't like we learn so little about him as a character that I feel like we spend so much time with him and we get nothing. Versus there's just snippets of these other characters. And I'm like, where's another 15, 20 minutes with Del?

Or even we spend a good amount of time with Merritt Weaver, but anything other than the other job offer would have been interesting. Because I feel like, what is she dealing with? Of knowing that she's... coming in and like acting as like producer on a lot of this stuff. And like, how does she, cause we know Anson doesn't seem to care, but like, it seems like other people in the cast should be like, well, I mean, some of what we're doing is not right. Like the way we're going about it at least.

And like, so I feel like if we had a little more conflict with some of these other characters or we spent time with them where they were kind of struggling with that, I think it would be more interesting because, than just devoting all the time to our star, but not really getting there. anywhere with him. You know, it's just seems like we, we end up in the same place. We start. I don't. And I guess that's what I don't know.

I don't know if, I don't know if the film doesn't want to have anything to say, or if it's afraid to have anything to say, or if it wants us as the audience to have an opinion and it kind of not get in the way of that, because it does. It's not that it's, you know, it's not that it's Switzerland and that, you know, it's neutral, but, It's not neutral by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, I think it's pretty rough with the Chris Hansen character. I don't think, you know, if anybody looks bad from this movie, other than just, again, like fake pedophiles, question mark, like actors playing roles of fake pedophiles, which is to say they're acting. Um, you know, there are some, there's one interesting choice for one of the actors playing one of the pedophiles.

Did you realize that the character, the character, uh, whose penis you see that is asking to have sex with a cat is grownup Jonathan Lipnicki, which was not, I. Did see him on the list there. And I was just like, yeah, you don't get a lot of Lipnicki these days. Yeah, or Lipnicki's dick, apparently. Well, that wasn't what I was looking for in this movie, but hey, there you go.

There it is. Yeah, it wasn't what I was expecting or anything. It's interesting because I think the person who looks the worst from this movie is Chris Hansen. That's intentional. I would go the other way.

That's one of the things I wanted to address in general with this is the tone of this movie because I feel like overall with what it's tackling, it As we've said, it's it's icky. You know, it's like it's gross. It's it's horrifying. Like when you when you get into the reality of what was happening is happening, like what is going on in the world right now is like it's horrifying. But the way that it comes off in this movie is almost like keeping it at arm's length.

And maybe it's because it knows if it took it to real, the audiences just wouldn't want to be there. They just get up and leave or not show up at all. So they have to like keep it at a distance and keep it at sort of a it's certainly not a fun version of it, but it's very light. I feel like it's very just not near the nightmare that it actually is. It just seems like it's it's a very distanced version of what's actually going on.

And then also on top of that, the thing that I thought was almost weird going into this is how much it humanizes things. those guys that are playing these roles like that specifically our very first one like by the end like there's moments when you're like you don't really because you know who he is and what he's doing but like you see how scared he is and you see how like they're all just these horrible flawed people but like they give you a moment to almost feel that and it's not what you would expect in this type of that I was like really you would think they would just make them all a nightmare and they're just horror show and like you would just come in and be like oh screw this guy we're gonna send him to the chair right now but like it spends just enough time in these little snippets for you to see how sad and vulnerable and terrible they are as people but almost enough to like feel bad for them at points and I'm just like I don't I didn't think we were supposed to be feeling bad for these guys, especially in a mainstream movie like this.

Like it's, it's weird that it's adding like a little humanity to these horrible characters, but at the same time bringing in these actors and like having these performances be sort of grounded, real flawed characters is, is a weird choice once again. So everything about the tone for the horrible scenario is surprising. weird and icky it's just weird well. What do you think the intention is with. That i don't know that's the thing like i don't by the end i'm not sure what we're supposed to take from so much of this movie Well, and that's the thing. I feel like, you know, maybe for me, part of it is, you know, that the spectacle that they're presenting in front of the camera is nothing like the spectacle behind the camera is part of what I feel like is kind of the message of it.

And, you know, you see that because, you know, Robert Pattinson's Chris Hansen is a walking nightmare. Like he is not the kind, he's really not the kind of person you'd want to spend any time around. There's a scene in the movie where he's, he's trying to get a rice crispy treat out of a vending machine. It's fucking hilarious. And he, The number at the top of the vending machine is there, and he's like, hi, I'm Chris Hansen, and your vending machine stole my money.

And it's like, that is literally a fucking meme. But it gets across exactly the kind of person that this version of Chris Hansen, this character that Robert Pattinson is playing. And, you know, we haven't mentioned it yet, but I think it's the film that this film reminds me a lot of. And. you know, to speak to Zodiac, which has an actor in this movie who ends up playing the main character in the movie and talking about Nightcrawler. I mean, this is like Nightcrawler in so many ways.

It's like, again, like looking at the lurid and talking about people that are drawn to the lurid and that they're, you know, engaged in looking at the lurid or turning a mirror back onto the lurid. Like, and those people, you know, what does that mean for them? Like that is what nightcrawler was all about. Like that was that I feel like in a nutshell, and I think it's done better. Nightcrawler is, I think this is like a movie that is just not as focused as nightcrawler, because I think what this movie is, and I think what this movie has the most in common, and you're probably going to laugh because, The movie that this reminds me of is The Disaster Artist, because I'm like, what what is why not just go watch To Catch a Predator?

Or I mean, if nothing else, I've seen several people mention why not watch his doc? Well, not his, but the documentary that came out like earlier this year, I think that was like about the same thing, just not the fictionalized version starring Robert Pattinson. So like they already did. a documentary about this basic idea. And some of them are like, that one is actually sort of challenging and, and like wants you as the audience to think about what it is that's going on, both from the victim end of it and from the, the TV side of it and the sensationalizing of it. And like, it kind of asked those questions that I don't know that this movie really really ask it.

It presents it, but it doesn't really give you a way to feel about it. And that's what, as you were talking about the, the nightcrawler, I was like, that is a good movie, but also I know how to feel about it. Like you watch that character. You're like, Oh no, I know where I stand on this guy. Like, so like, yes, you can see there's a little presentation that he does around other people, but like from the get go, you kind of know who he is and you know where he stands and you know what's going on in his world and how terrible it is where this is.

It's just so just a weird presentation across the board that not just our lead, but also the world that he lives in is so the waters are so muddy that I'm just like, I don't even know. Did you guys? I mean, I know we all pick a side, essentially, but like, do you know how you're supposed to feel about these weird? scenarios going on? Because I don't know that the audience does. And I guess that for me is kind of the ultimate, again, question that I have about this movie is, why is this the Chris Hansen story?

Exactly. Like, what about. This needed to be the Chris Hansen story? Other than he's he is that cult of personality kind of a guy like that. The presentation that he puts out there does get people's attention.

So I get it from like the the initial presentation standpoint, but almost maybe more for the actual TV show end of it. Like I can see him being the lead of that. But him being the center of this specific story is kind of weird, especially the way that we get the entire tale. Like I said, it doesn't really lead anywhere. So it's weird to put him at the center of it.

When there's no story arc, there's no character development. He's the same asshole he was in the beginning. So like, I don't really know what the focusing again, it would make more sense if you went with with Dan Plum as our main character or. even focus on the producer or somebody else in the show and like see it from their point of view and be like, maybe it would be a little more of this. Chris Hansen is a monster angle, but like, I, I don't, I feel like it would have more of a take. It would have more of a direction that I feel like is still kind of missing in this version.

And that's, I guess that's, uh, it's weird it's just weird that this is a chris hansen right i i again like it feels like we're doing that because it's because of who he is which is fine i know who chris hansen is but i guess what am i as someone who knows who chris hansen is supposed to gain from this i don't know that you do really other than a good a good acting. Role right like that's a weird movie to make is my point like I agree. That's odd. That's an odd way to make a film because I don't, I guess it's, I guess the assumption is that you know who Chris Hansen is going into this movie. And so if we take that step and let's just look at it from that direct, what I know about Chris Hansen and what you know about Chris Hansen in terms of his personal life is very little.

When I was watching this film with my girlfriend, she was like, did that, like, did that, you know, affair actually happen? It's like, I don't know. And again, I don't know if it happened, but again, it's being used for dramatic effect in the film because it's like, well, look at what he's doing and look at what someone is doing to him. Like, isn't that awful? And it's like, no, it's not like I again, I don't know if the film is saying, oh, isn't that awful?

I actually would not even make the wouldn't even make the case that the film is saying that I guess the film isn't saying anything. And I think it's one of those things where it's almost two hands off. with what it's saying that it may not be saying anything at all. And that I think for me, and what's very funny is if you look at who is going and seeing this 69% of the audience that made up the people that saw this movie over the under 30, y'all were like barely even alive when this was on. For probably don't know who that guy is. Yeah.

Like it's, you know, exactly. And it's like, okay, So if you don't know who Robert Pattinson's character is before you see the movie, are you going to believe that this is the way he actually is? Are you going to look into it? And it doesn't matter. I don't really care.

That's how much you want to engage with something outside of engaging with it to begin with. But I guess my question is, if you're younger than me and you have gone and seen this film, do you know who Chris Hansen is? If you do, are you walking away from this movie feeling less sympathetic, more sympathetic, or sympathetic at all? Were you even sympathetic at all to begin with? Because that's what I don't understand.

I think it's just a shrug at that point. Like, I don't know. The guy was weird. How Gen Z is that, right? Like, I don't know.

Like, not to drag the Gen Zers, because I'm not. Like, I have. plenty of Gen Z friends. Like I love the Gen Zers as like a generation, but that like, like that is very, that's like very indicative of them. I think is like a generation is like, does it have to mean anything? I saw the movie.

That's like, I left the house. Damn it. I saw a movie. It's like, does it have to mean anything? And it's like, you know, I don't, I don't know if this movie has to mean anything.

It could just be broadly quote a vibe unquote. And I'm not saying that like that is in and of itself an excuse, but like, More, it's just like, you know, if Chris Hansen is just the engine that drives the film along and it's him, you know, just we need someone to be our kind of Sherpa up the mountain to catch a predator. And we have this weirdo version of Chris Hansen to do so. Okay, but I agree with you like I'm struggling to understand what the takeaway with his character is other than he's a self-righteous prick who thinks what he's doing is right, which is is is the case at the beginning and is the case at the end like that. Yeah, there's there's no change there and there doesn't have to be a change.

I mean, Where's my arc, Tony? Like, you know, there doesn't have to be a change per se, but if you're being given this opportunity to do this, what why aren't you saying or at. Least a revelation like either he has a change within the story or he doesn't and we take something away because of that. But I don't feel like we get either in this scenario like. And you brought up the affair, and that's another one of those things that just feels weird in its presentation, specifically in this story, because, like, it keeps, like, coming back to that as, like, this damning thing.

Ah, see, look at him and what he's doing. I'm like, well, yeah, but, like, I was like, you know, I... I, more than most people, am not cool with infidelity. Like, I don't like people who cheat. Like, I'm not on board with any of that.

But comparatively, with the other things going on in this story, that is pretty minimal. Like, yeah. You're a horrible husband. But compared to the other things that we aren't really focusing on on the other side of the story, it's very unbalanced and it really presents it as this big damning aspect of his life. And I'm like, yeah, it's wrong, but we're not focusing on its other stuff over here that is horrifying enough And we're spending a lot of time on this thing over here that is, you know, a bad part of his marriage that maybe he doesn't need to be married.

But again, it's just weird to even have them on the same scale. And like, it's kind of the worst thing they throw at him in this movie other than him just being an asshole. But like, there's no other. But that's the other one. Like, if there was something different. waiting that like by the end of it, you could, you could unleash this.

And then we found on his computer, all this kiddie board. Aha. See, he was the worst of all then. Okay. Well, there's your story, like even more horrifying, but at least you've got an aha moment at the end to like bust out and have a big horrifying twist at the end of this movie.

But we don't at best. if you want to call it that he's cheating on his wife. Like that's the only really officially damning thing we had to throw at him other than he's not really a great guy. But I was just like, that's weird that we focus that much. I mean, I guess it came out in the national inquirer. So it's a real thing that they had to throw in there just to have some sort of warts and all, but I'm like, he's got plenty of warts.

He doesn't need the affair. Like, Just as a character, he's got plenty. So the fact that they spent as much time and sort of dramatic effect of the affair that could be leaked at any moment, I was like, yeah, I get it. I don't like it about him, but it's just like it's so minor compared to the other horrors going on in this movie. And that, I think, I guess, is maybe the problem with a movie like this, ultimately, is the subject material, because they don't focus on it enough, does kind of feel secondary.

But I think it is because, like you just said, it's hard for that not to just be like, well, Jesus Christ, this is a movie about men trying to have sex with children that they met on the internet. There's no getting around it. This isn't like, oh, you know what we're going to do? We're going to do a Serbian film. And a Serbian film is really about the treatment of the Serbian people by the Serbian government.

But it's a film with all this really awful stuff in it. So it's metaphorical. No, this is what this was. This was called To Catch a Predator. It was a show about a group that had deputized themselves, seemingly.

And that's the other thing. It's weird. I talked with my dad about this when we watched it when I saw them last time they came up to visit. And we were talking about kind of the weirdness of it. The characters in this movie do the same thing that the human beings did on the show, which is they never say that they're police.

But they have this weird relationship with the police where they're kind of like spending time with them. And when they go to Murphy, the cops are like, you know, throwing a party and a barbecue for them. And it's like these. Things that blur the line between what is the cops doing this and what is these people being deputized seemingly to do this. And then the cops show up because if the cops were doing this, then it is entrapment.

But if it's these guys doing it and then the cops are waiting outside, it's not somehow that's not entrapment, which is, again, the most like you know, splitting of hairs of splitting of hairs, anything possible. But at the same time, that's where, again, we come back to this whole thing with what, what ultimately was the point of to catch a predator, the show to begin with, it was to catch predators. Well, again, small drop in a bucket. The movie makes, makes note of that because again, we see that character of this kind of man wearing a mask when he's in India, Chris Hansen sees his character and then he sees him at the end of the movie. still in the bushes and he never caught him and he never caught him because you can't catch that which is uh you know amorphous i want to say uh is i think it's in the empty man he says you can't indict the cosmos like you can't like the predators pedophilia is an amorphous being it is an entity unto itself like it's not.

The ultimate evil that's been there since the dawn of time like anything else like stop it yeah yeah it's. It's a drop in the fucking bucket like literally And that's the thing. Like, I think the movie is wanting to have that conversation. And I think for me, the most interesting part of the movie is that monologue that Chris Hansen has with Skylar Gazanda, where he's talking about India and, you know, going to India and, you know, this this whole idea of like, well, when I was there, there was this, you know. There was this child predator that was killing people and he was, you know, ripping the children apart and.

All this stuff. And it was like it was like an animal. And again, it's that's the most interesting part, because, again, it's like this is this is what I wanted from the movie, which is I wanted something that was examining Chris Hansen as a character. And the movie is afraid to do that, which is a shame because like the one time it does it in the movie in terms of like an actual extended monologue, it's really interesting. But the movie does it one time.

Like, really only does it one time. I don't even know that it's afraid. It feels like it's afraid to touch the other, creepier stuff. But it seems almost disinterested in his motivation. Like, it's almost like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but he's like this.

And we like him playing this asshole part here. Like, let's not dig into it. We don't need to know. That's our thing with the villains. We don't need to know why the villains are villains.

I'm like, well... He's not exactly the villain of this, and it probably would be nice if we knew some of the reasons he's doing the things he's doing. It would at least be more of an interesting character for us to watch. But yeah, the movie almost seems disinterested in who he is as a character. And what's weird is, to your point, it does kind of treat him like the villain, but.

He's not the villain. It's again, it's one of these like, well, he's. An emotionally complicated and, you know, complex, narratively complex character. And it's like, yes, he is. But he's not unique in that regard.

Like we've seen care again to go back to Zodiac or to go back to Nightcrawler like Jake Gyllenhaal technically plays two very similar characters in both of those movies, and they're very similar to Chris Hansen in terms of like this. I wouldn't say misplaced, but they're like weird, self-righteous feeling of like what I am doing is important and the importance will will out in the end. Like that is done so much better in those movies. And it's like it's not the space is not so crowded anymore. that you can't do that. So I don't know why you didn't do it because it's like every, it's like a movie like this comes out every year and we're so sick and tired of these kinds of movies.

Like the last kind of movie that came out like this one was nightcrawler. And that movie came out a fair while ago. And before that was Zodiac, which came out in like 2007. It came out pre Iron Man at this point. Jesus Christ.

But those guys are villains. Those guys are killing people. Like, one of them's a murderer. The other one goes out of his way to let people die sometimes and then eventually is killing people, if I'm remembering. It's been a while since I've seen that one.

And then you've got those type of characters that truly are villains. And then you've got the other people in this same movie that are legitimately villains that are doing... horrible things and it's premeditated and it's planned and they're showing up waiting to do this to these kids. And again, we kind of gloss over all of that and almost villainize this guy who's like, again, comparatively, the worst thing he's doing is cheating on his wife. That's, that's what's so uneven about this movie that like, There's so many aspects of it that are so well made and so well done, but like it's that overall like just unbalancedness of it all that I can't I can't like it just didn't sit right by the time I was done because it just seems off.

I just I can't help but feel like it's intentional. Probably to some extent. Like, I think it's part of and I think as we were saying earlier of like, how how do you put, you know, this guy is the center of the movie. And I'm like, I think the real world answer is because that's how you get this made. Like you get your Robert Pattinson. who was like, I saw on here, he was just gonna be producer.

He was just gonna be producer, yeah. And then you're like, well, but you should play this guy. So now you've got Robert Pattinson in the lead, you're already halfway there of getting this thing greenlit, so then you put this really creepy spin on it, and you're like, Again, that that trailer that we watched looked like a horror movie like in it. The movie itself actually doesn't feel near as as horrifying and creepy as what was portrayed in that trailer. Like it's like I said, it's a lot lighter about the horrible things going on than it should be, probably.

But like if you present it like it's got this weird, eerie tone and like we've got this guy who is he the bad guy? Which, you know, as we find out, no, not at all, really, compared to what else is going on in this world. He's just kind of an asshole is what he is. But like, I think that's the real world answer is you have to bring in this big recognizable star and you had to put this spin on it to get this story made as a movie. Because otherwise, what are you left with?

Like, if you're just looking at the script, it's like you don't even have a revelation to bring to these people. So it's like, if you don't have some sort of angle to it, like what do you even do with this movie as it is? So, and you know, if, if the film, when I don't think it, I, you know, I don't think the film is, is, is going to win. Well, I don't know. It's going to not win any Oscars.

It might win some Oscars. It does have some of those things that could lead to an Oscar, but, I want to mention something that we haven't really talked in terms of the film. And I think it's definitely something worth talking. This film looks amazing. Oh yeah.

I, again, I mentioned like the, the look of it, but like we have not dug into it. Cause yeah, it is so well done just visually design wise, you know, cinematography, like, you know, even just the sets, the kitchen that they're in, you know, it's like, it's so well put together. And so like, tacky in its own way. It digs into the creepiness of this scenario more so than the story does sometimes. It's just the presentation of it all.

It's a very DV-coded film. I mean, it does. It definitely looks like a time and a place, the mid-2000s, where. This was the kind of footage, I mean, if you go watch To Catch a Predator, the one thing I think of is the grungy nature of the footage because it was in a time where HD was not where it is now. And it's just not, it's not, I don't know, it's just not what it is now.

I mean, you just have to watch it. You can see if you watch it. I was finding quotes about it. One of them, it mentions the sleazy, douchey vibe of early 2000s videotape and closed circuit four quadrant TV. I was like, yeah, exactly.

Like that's the feel of so much of what's going on. Once they get in the house there, the bait that goes on there and the, the creepy aspect of all that, that like, again, it's like, it's right there. Like it goes right up to the point of like having just that house and that the, the layout and bringing out cookies and sweet tea and like having the kid be all shucks, hang on, let me go check and see. And I think I spilled something on my shirt. Like it's so, it's so creepy in all of that presentation, but then it gets right up to, which again, maybe because of the show, it may be the show's fault that the show itself initially, then, then pulls the rug out from under them.

And us, the viewer, when Chris comes walking out, it's like, Hey, how's it going? I'm here to mess up your whole evening. Oh, and kind of the vibe of what's going on in this movie. So I don't know. It's just such a weird, again, weird, unbalanced of what's going on there because the look of it is so good.

And that the creepiness of the, the way that it looks and the way that it feels otherwise is so well done. And then it just sort of doesn't deliver on the rest of it, which again is, is hard to say because you don't want that. It's not like you signed up to watch anything creepier in that area, but at the same time, if you're not going to go down that road, why make this movie? Like that's kind of the point of this movie is, Like, that's the thing. I don't want to make this movie.

Like, if I'm them and, like, you throw this idea at me, I'm like, ew, gross. No, no, no. Thank you. No. I'll go find something I want to be passionate about.

This is just, it's icky and I don't want to devote my time to it as a filmmaker. But if you're going to, like, isn't that what you do? See, here's the thing. I would do a film like this. That's why I enjoy it.

I think I. Enjoyed this movie more than you did. Because I do enjoy the ickiness of this movie. The kind of icky core of this movie. I do enjoy it.

Because I think that's the thing. Robert Pattinson, clearly an ickmeister like me. He's reveling in it in this movie. Here's the thing that we haven't talked about. For all intents and purposes, this is a biopic.

I fucking hate biopics. for the most part like imagine a biopic but not this one like just a normal one and it's like okay any other biopic and i'm not even interested i'm not even engaged i'm not even watching it and this film it's like well it's a biopic masquerading as like an investigative journalism mockumentary like again i don't even it's what's weird about this movie is it i can't even class it as something because it is so its own thing. I mean, in a, in, in both a good way and a bad way. And I think that that, and that hurts and helps the film because there are very few films like it, And there are very few films like it, which means it occupies kind of a spot of good and bad because I can't really compare it to anything.

But that's not a bad thing for most of watching films. Most of the time, yeah. Most of the time. But there are a lot of people that will not watch weird things. That's true.

And I don't blame them. This lands in a weird spot that I feel like regular audiences are going to tune out. Like if they're watching this when it ends up streaming at home, I feel like there's going to be a lot of people that turn it off midway in because they're either weirded out by the subject matter, which, duh, why are you here? Like you should know better before you even start it, really. But even then, I mean, once you get into it, it's not even a traditional like they're probably the kind of people who might watch the show and have been, you know, I'm on my high horse and I can get on.

I can pick a side. I can be like these horrible people. Look at them. Whereas you don't. It's harder to do that with this movie because everything's so muddy and everybody's so weird and creepy.

That you don't even get to do that as much as just watching the show. So I feel like it's going to be a harder sell for even the audience that once watched the show will watch this and be like, wait, what is this? So, yeah. That's why I compared it to the disaster artist, because I feel like the only other thing I can compare this to in terms of what it's trying to do in terms of recreating something in a higher def version than the version we get is the disaster. And if that movie could, it would just have remade the room.

And I don't know why it just didn't remake. I don't know why it wasn't just let's remake. And I'm not because you can't really. I mean. Well, other than the fact that they've also gone and just done that now recently, too, which is fine.

So it's I guess my point being, you know, that's the only reason I am feeling like I can compare it to that, because I similarly to that film, like nobody in the disaster artist comes out looking good. I think everybody in that looks icky and weird. Both the people. In front of the camera and the people behind the camera. I mean, just talking about, again, James Franco, my God.

Again, anybody involved in a movie about the worst movie ever, which is just like a, such a self-aggrandizing, like, pat on the back of it all. Like, it's not even the worst movie ever made. It's not even close to the worst movie ever made. Like, it's... I could give you a movie that came out this year that's worse than that, just based on the fact that it, again, is much more expensive, made way less money, and was being sad.

Way more time and effort put into it in a soulless way than The Room, which is a small indie pic made by a fucking weirdo that someone in Hollywood resonated with, and then someone else did, and then that caught on. I mean, there were small films like The Room that were like similar to it like Birdemic you remember Birdemic that was another like I've seen Birdemic in the vein of the room like again there was a time when those kinds of movies came out like this movie I think is more about like doing that same reappraisal of a thing that was done in low def or low or shitty high def and turning it into like again navel gazing of a different kind. Like, well, we're, we're our tours and we're going to, we're going to our tour of fi to catch a predator, which is like the lowest of lowbrow shit.

It really is like, and that's the thing. Like I love to catch a predator, but I love the meme of to catch a predator. Like the meme culture around to catch a predator is funny. There's a lot of like weird, like follow up with these fucking weirdos after the fact. And like, they are just weirdos and perverts and like, pedophiles and all like, and again, like, but that's what is so strange is this is taking place in a pre social media era because again, they're, they're talking on aim for God's sakes.

And like an internet chat room. Um, it's weird because this is taking place. In a time and a place that the people who are watching this movie in 69% nice droves didn't even grow up. They grew up with the, like Gen Z grew up with the internet. My generation, the millennials are like the last generation to grow up kind of on the cusp of without the Internet.

Gen Zers have had it the whole time. And it's the movie is set in a time and place which is like it didn't look like this. It didn't look like some like, you know, DV, you know, you know, washed out expressionistic dream like this movie is so, you know, it's so funny when you look at the scenes. of them like recreating the kitchen or these rooms where these predators are caught. It's like, oh my God, look at the set value now. Versus like the original, like, It's fucking like, it's like the Arrested Development House.

Fucking, you know, you open up the cabinet and there's nothing there. Where there's a bowl of fucking fake fruit on the table. Like, you see it in that first scene where the guy is wise to what's going on immediately when he looks at the cookies and they're like fucking two weeks old. And it's like, what the fuck? Like, these are not fresh baked cookies.

Like, it's funny because it almost feels like people that were there, because Lance Oppenheim, I want to say, is around my age. which would be like mid thirties. So someone who was there in as much as you could have been. Yeah, he's 30. So he's been, I am reappraising something that it's not that he wasn't there for it, but the people that are resonating with it weren't there for it, which is so weird. And it's again, it's like, It's not that they aren't watching to catch a predator.

The only reason they're watching this movie is because of to catch. I think a lot of people who are watching this, it's because they've like watched to catch a predator because there's a shocking, a large amount of to catch a predator content on YouTube outside of just the show itself. Kind of being a thing that people watch. I mean, it's a thing that it is a thing that I watch from time to time. Like it is like, it is, I'm going to say this and I don't want to like out myself here as like a fucking weirdo, but it is a very funny show.

I've heard this just. I've heard this described as a black comedy by some people. And I was like, it kind of is like, what a weird place to park your flag. I was just like, yeah, I'm going to make a comedy about this. I was like, ah, once again, I'm like, this is, this is a unsteady land that you're building.

I was like, what are you doing? I think that the film is a rather black comedy for a couple reasons. I think we have this kind of hero creation myth that Chris Hansen clearly in the movie believes in because we have him We have him freaking out in a scene that is better suited for an actual action film, including him wearing a bulletproof vest, which makes it look like if you were watching this movie, any other like, you know, actual serious action movie. But it turns out it's just this guy harassing like pedophiles. and screaming at them and then having the cops come and arrest them. Like, that's the thing.

If you boil this down, I mean, that is what the movie is effectively saying that Chris Hansen was doing is like, he's just harassing. Well, and it's so funny watching the one time the guy like puts his hands on him and he, it freaks him out. Like, he's just like, he's not, he wants to be the one in charge. He wants to be the one that's like so self-righteous, but even when it comes into like human contact, he like freaks out. And I'm not sure if it was because it was these creepy guys, but it feel like it feels like it was just like general human contact.

Like he's so in his bubble and so in his role that anything that breaks that it sort of breaks the myth of all of it. And he's just like, oh, like he doesn't know how to handle anything at that point. Once the guy like touches him, it freaks him out on like a basic level. Which is very funny because again, like it's it, I think it's this, this movie, I think really does speak to the idea of like, what, what is the myth that we create for ourselves in terms of what are we willing to allow ourselves to believe is our own self importance. And I think it's, I think the movie kind of gets ahead of itself by making Chris Hansen like an asshole from the start.

I think it should have. I mean, if it if it hadn't had him been being an asshole from the start and it had him building up to that, which is perfectly fine, like just having a character kind of degrade and erode into this kind of just egotistical maniac monster of a human being. Like, I, I think it would have worked better because I think by the end of the movie, we have this This person who has completely bought into their own myth, their own importance, their own kind of like, well, I can change the world and what I'm doing is important. And I think that the film, if you if you were to start at a point lower than the one it begins at and get to the point where the film does get to, I think that could have been a more earned moment for the film.

It's doing such a limited amount of time. That's the thing. It's just when this show becomes a show, essentially, if you started back when he was still an investigative journalist and he's like dealing with that stuff, even if we just got snippets of that at the beginning, it, he might've been more of a human being back then. So like, it might be his origin story as this guy. We don't get that in this movie, but like we, we might have had somewhere for him to go.

Whereas in this amount of time, he's already there. So like, there's no progression. There's no regression. There's just like, yeah, this is who this guy is. This is what he does, which is such a weird choice.

But again, I think it does speak more to, and there's this weird moment in the movie that I think is intentionally mirroring 2001, a space odyssey. I mean, I, you tell me if that's what it's mirroring, but again, like, I feel like this movie is trying to have a bigger conversation with about the human experience than maybe it's even capable of having. I don't know. You tell me. I'm not trying to say this movie is super heady in what it's doing.

But you tell me if the movie does kind of seem like it's trying to be a little bit more than just, oh, this is just a movie about Chris Hansen, the guy who was catching all the pedophiles. And again, you tell me if I'm wrong. But it does feel like it's trying to have a bigger conversation. I mean, that scene where Robert Pattinson throws the bone in the air, that seemed a little far, but I mean... That's what I was going to say.

A new spaceship is going to show up in this movie. God damn you, son of a bitch. Fine. Never mind. I take this seriously, Brian Redfoe, don't you?

That's the thing. I think that's part of what is so uneven, as I've said, so unbalanced about it, because I feel like... ideally you want it to be about something like that and you want it to present like the real evil of what's going on and not pull back from that. But at the same time question, like, why is this guy being such a lech about it? Like, why is he, why is he so concerned with promoting himself in this process? It's not about him saving these kids.

It's about him putting himself in front of a camera and, And making himself the star of a primetime television show. Oh, and by the way, we busted these guys too. Which I'm okay with though. Him front and center is the most important part. And that I feel like is something they also need to question a little more.

And I feel like they don't. I guess I guess for me, my takeaway is if the movie is just about showing how fucked up the people on the other side of the again, if you take this movie and take a step back and you say, look, the show was about, you know, publicly condemning because he even says it in the movie. Right. He's like back in days of your life. There were pillories in the towns, which makes me think of that fucking bit from Celebrity Jeopardy where David Duchovny is portraying Jeff Goldblum.

And he's like, what is it I have here? It's like, is it's a what do you. Call it in days of yore when they would put people? Oh, you mean a stockade or a pillory? Ah, yes.

No, it's a fucking hammer. Like it's. I think the movie is taking upon itself to say the people that are on the one side of the finger pointing are really no better in terms of the judging than the people. The people judging are no better than the people being judged in terms of having their own foibles. It's just obviously we have this foible of, I'm not going to say the Trump card, but it is the Trump card that one plays in terms of bad foibles.

It's the one where you have to register foibles Even if you murder someone, you don't have to register with a state government body or national government body that doesn't allow you to live near schools. I'd like to point that out. You can kill someone, and that is not a thing that follows you the way being a sex offender is. Yeah, I don't think you move into the neighborhood and have to go door to door and be like, hi, I murdered a guy a couple of years back and just wanted to let you guys know I murdered some people. No, there's none of that.

And that's the thing. It's like that, the Trump card in this movie is like, we'll see like Chris Hansen's terrible and Merritt Weaver, who we've barely even talked about, is also terrible. And Phoebe Bridger, eh, maybe not terrible. And Skylar Gazzando, eh, probably not terrible. They're the kind of innocents here. but seemingly everybody else is kind of like involved in the kind of lurid lascivious nature.

And like, we, we have the one guy who's just, I mean, you know, he, we have Chris Hansen, who's terrible. We have Merritt Weaver's character. Who's terrible. And then we have Matthew Maher's character, the kind of the founder of perverted justice. So I think looks the worst of anybody in the movie.

He's very excited about what he does. And I'm like, that's weird. But that's the thing, right? Like, and we see it in that scene with Phoebe Bridger's character where she. Is like, you know what?

I am not going to go on screen if we are selling these like perverted justice underwear. These like a thong that's making a joke about like contents inside have been aged to 18 years or older. Which is funny because that's the bridge that you're not willing to cross. Like this, you're willing to do all these other things, including entrapping people and all this other stuff, which again, not defending the people they're entrapping, but just saying like, you're willing to do kind of questionable things of their own right. But that's the thing that's the bridge too far.

Marketing and merchandising, it's crossing a line. The marketing rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams. That's the thing. It's very funny to me because, again, it's making light of and asking the people that are involved in this, where are they coming from this morally? And I do like that everyone on the production side of things are as, I wouldn't say fucked up, but they're as morally ambiguous, if not... morally like negative characters just about as much as the characters that are the pedophiles and like you said it in a way it humanizes the pedophiles more which it does what a weird choice but at the same weird joy but at the same time.

Like i kind of respect it because that's the intention of the filmmaker it has I mean, the one I would have liked to have spent more time with, and only because of the performance. Again, he's the big whale at the end of this they're trying to land. But when you get to Alex Winter, and I'm like, I will give him, when you're the big bad of the movie, you'd sign on for that. These other guys, I'm like, I don't know why you guys signed on for these roles. This is not a good place to be.

But when you're like that, like you're the big finale of it. I'm like, I can see that being a role that you would be like, you'd get the script. You'd be like, all right, this is, this is it. This is my role. But we really don't like he's, he's so good.

What little time we spend with him, but we don't even get like, we don't get a handle on who he is in his career. We don't really know what it is that that's drawn him to that. Like, again, it keeps him like sort of in the dark, which I guess would if it were a different type of presentation would make sense. But I feel like there's so much there that could be interesting. Just from dramatic standpoint, you know, obviously the character and the story itself is horrible.

But like from from an acting standpoint of like you could really kind of bring something to that when you're bringing in a really good actor, which Alex is. And like I kind of would have liked to have seen a little more time with our big villain at the end there. But we don't get much with him. Which is wild that it's Alex Wintour. He's having a renaissance these days.

He's coming off his big dramatic play. And, you know, now he's got a big dramatic role that I'm sure. And once again, seeing the screenplay being the big finale that it is, this could be like the supporting Oscar role kind of a thing if it were the right movie in the right hands. I think these are good hands as far as the filmmakers go, but I don't. he's not really got enough screen time to do that. I don't think it's going to come with this role because he just doesn't get a chance to deliver.

But I can see that being the lure from the acting standpoint of like, this is, this is heavy and dramatic. And this is the kind of thing that you could, you could get recognition over, especially somebody who's not had as much, you know, for, for where he came from. So like he was very popular, but he didn't get a lot of props for his acting over the years, which is sad because he is a really good actor. He's a great actor. Yeah.

It's such a shame. No, I, I'm a huge, I am a huge Alex winter guy. I, you know, again, as someone who loves freak and we'll go too bad. And, you know, I will die on the Hill of that movie any day of the week. It's what it's, it's one of, I mean, it's one of my favorite movies.

I don't know. Just something about it resonates with me. It's just dumb and it's practical effects. And it has the sense of humor of like a, a smart 10 year old, I guess. I don't know.

Like it's, it's so much fun and if you've never seen it like it's just that's the other thing for me that I appreciate about this movie is the involvement of someone like Alex Winter because it's like okay he I know that he doesn't get involved with things just for no reason. Yeah not not these days you know he's very selective what he does these days 100% 100% and you know I think that you know I think that his involvement at the end I'm curious what did you think about him at the end because it's He's obviously playing, he's playing a real person and he's playing again, the biggest pedophile. Again, you know, again, I don't even want to, I don't even know how to talk about it. He's the, he shows the largest, the most hope, the most high profile of what they've been bringing in.

The rest of these are just normal working class guys. This is a big deal when. They, all the other ones are jokey. And then it's like at the end, the movie pivots into something else completely and becomes a completely different kind of movie. So what did you think of.

What the movie was doing with that? Again, I think that's that's the part they really had to end on because that's the real again, it's based on that article. So like it's sort of finale almost has to be what happened there if you're going to build it around this article, because that's that's, I guess, the most high profile event that happened around this show. It's like other than that, it just had good ratings and, you know, it made a name out of Chris Hansen. But like that's the one real world thing that they had that happened and came out of this that they had to sort of and also shows like if you're going to see like the real potential evil of what was going on behind the scenes that's the end result is it ends in someone's death now was he a horrible person yeah but like was it by his own hand yeah but like it still is not the way that you want things to go when you're trying to put the you know, it's a dumb TV show.

So it shouldn't end in someone's death. Like, that's just not how you want to handle things. And that's what happened with this. So it's it's them misbehaving. sort of misjudging how these things were going to go, misjudging how important they felt that they were, leaving a lot up to the cops who were very... For the fact that our guy's bohemian, like Bokeem Woodbine, I mean, he's a very good old boy, and he is ready to take care of things the way that they do...

In the good old boy world and like so when you have the police that also aren't really concerned about how you're officially supposed to do things because this is so evil that it outweighs that you know it's like this is so terrible that I'm going to take this person down because they're evil. not because it's my job, not because it's right or wrong. It's they are evil and they must be destroyed. And that was their goal, period. So this guy just sort of beat him to the punch because, you know, one of the cops would have shot him before he got, you know, into the cop car. Like it would have been it would have ended badly no matter what.

He just took it upon himself to take himself out of the scenario before it got to that point. But that's where it had to end. I think they did as good a job as they could as far as the movie end of it and it sort of leaves that gray area there for you to see like if you didn't know what to think about it before it's definitely in a bad place by the time we get to the finale here as far as once again this is a dumb tv show it does not need to be escalated to this level and into the way that it does And again, it's that question of, you know, do the ends justify the means? And I don't I don't think the film is. Unbiased in that question.

I think the film makes that kind of feeling pretty clear by the end of it, which is like the ends do not justify the means. And by the end of it, by the end of it, I do think we see Chris Hansen is just broken. He has just brought, which I think if we're talking about a character arc, you know, where's my arc again, Tony? I think that's, I think that is the character arc. I think is this man pushes himself to the absolute limit and in the end breaks, just breaks.

I mean, and then the film kind of just ends with him saying his, his like catchphrases over and over again, like babbling like a fucking idiot. I mean, that is the end of the film is him just, and the, and the, and the four quadrants of, of the screen shutting down while he's doing it. And it's, I don't know if it's meant to mimic like his brain shutting down or, or what have you, or our, or our tie with him as a character shutting down. But he literally is just broken by the end of the film. And I, I think what's interesting is there's so much more runway here that this film could have like used.

And instead of taking advantage of it, it, it seemingly just wanted to be like, this like shortened kind of, and I've, I've seen that they, I think the director described the original script as a fever dream. And it does have these kinds of weird dreamlike qualities. And I think that that's the, the usage of the static camera. And the, you know, the digital video. I think some of that adds to that.

And also, you know, hearkening back to a time that is not, it's not like now. Because it's just before now. 2006 is just before, I think, what most people can remember in terms of of a lot of things, but... Certainly in modern technology-wise. Yeah, it's very...

Just before all of that changes, yeah. Yeah. And what's funny is, and I want your thoughts on this, in the movie, we have a lot of these scenes that are shot with this, you know, again, like, the kind of warm... you know digital video look but then we have these these shots that are close up high resolution like really like washed out and it's almost like that is the future or like the now having a conversation in the present of the movie's reality with the movie itself. You know what I mean? Cause like, again, it's like such a weird stylistic choice and they do it a couple times in the movie.

And it's almost like, again, like the movie is understandingly knowing that that is it's, it is judging the characters in those moments and kind of giving a, like, this is what and how this could be perceived as time goes on. And like, again, like what gives you the right, like one of the characters says that like, what gives you the right to this? And it's like, again, like, I don't know what your perception of that was, but again, it's another kind of like stylistic choice of, And maybe I'm overanalyzing the movie. But again, like this feels like one of those kinds of movies. Well, it has that.

Yeah. I mean, just the visual presentation and the other things that kind of works in along the way does have that weird dreamy quality or nightmare imagery, depending on how you or where you're at. I think it's supposed to be nightmarish, like more or less throughout. I mean, even when it's the guy who plays Creed from The Office and Robert Pattinson on the plane, the way that he's shot in that scene in the lighting makes it look like a horror movie. But the thing that's interesting is, and how you were describing it there, I was like, yeah, within the context of this movie, I guess that's as close as we get to it having some sort of effect on the character and having maybe not a real arc, but at least has impact on him that he's pushed himself so far that he's kind of broken by the end of it.

The sad thing is that's just the movie version, because in the real world, he just seems like he continued on and kept doing more of the same. And almost bought into his own real life. Never learn their lesson. We know. Well, yeah, bought into his own legend so much that like now he just banks on it.

And like, that was one of the things I thought was really funny because I didn't realize this was going on. And one of the first things in, in after the movie, I went to go kind of see, Oh, let's, let's learn more about Chris Hansen. And the first thing that popped up, was the fact that you can get him to do a video for you on uh whatever the stupid services yeah you can get him to do a cameo for you. Of course because it's a fucking lark this whole thing is a lark. But that's also how and that you were saying like whether or not lance was involved beforehand with this he lance oppenheimer didn't watch oppenheim but lance didn't Lance didn't watch to catch a predator.

He said he really wasn't. He only knew it from the parodies, like when South Park made fun of him. And then only recently did he become familiar with him because his wife ordered him a cameo video when he was congratulating him on his last movie. And he came out and did his, why don't you have a seat? And like he went into his whole bit and he's like, wait, what?

So like he's really like this is like or or he's self-aware enough to present himself this way now. And I think that's so weird because, again, it's showing that like he hadn't learned anything like he's exactly the same person he was when he was doing the show. And he's maybe a little worse now because now he's playing it up for the joke of it as a cameo video. So like it's I don't know, like it makes it even cheaper knowing that he's just selling it now even more than he was at least in a network. was giving him a check every week. It was probably a pretty decent paycheck.

But now for a minimal amount of money, you can get him to wish you a happy birthday selling the same bullshit. And I'm just like, That's kind of sad on a whole different level now for all parties involved, maybe. But isn't that kind of isn't that kind of the point, though, of this movie? Wouldn't you say like the movie is hopeful that something like this, doing something like this would cause you to maybe hopefully goddamn change and be a better person or hold yourself more accountable? And it's like, but not in real life.

That's not what happened. It's like, well, of course, that's not what happened in real life. Because in real life, Donald Trump got elected president, the world's most famous pedophile in quotations, however much you believe in the Epstein files, which should be all of it. I don't know. It's weird to have a conversation about pedophilia in 2026 when the Epstein files, which was in a lot of ways similar to when Edward Snowden leaked all of the stuff about the spying.

Yeah. I was like, well, that was just a thing that people were joking about. Like, well, the government's spying on you. It's like, no, they fucking are. No, they really were.

And it's like, the Epstein files are no different. It's like the Epstein files are literally, oh, we just think that all the rich and powerful are butt fucking kids on an Island somewhere where the rich and powerful get away with everything. It's like, funny joke it's like no that's literally what's happening like and again it's like fiction is fiction is sometimes more strange than reality but sometimes reality is fucked up way beyond what fiction. Reality is way more horrifying than any fictionalized version of it is of. Course chris hansen didn't like a movie where by the end of it he actually learned a lesson from his bad behavior I mean, that's the thing.

That's the thing that's hard about this movie is we don't see the next frame after Alex Winter's character kills himself. We don't see what happens like five minutes after. We see Chris Hansen standing there just like fucking babbling like his brain is broken. and and that's the end of the movie and we see that you know the producer is the actual like she might be the actual cutthroat one who's you know like well we can make this work you know we can work. With that it's like we can interview the cops we'll make it happen which is which is so fucked because like we know we're talking about chris hansen we're indicting chris hansen and But the movie is less of an indictment of Chris Hansen and more of an indictment of, and I think it reminds me a lot of Jordan Peele's Nope, it's more of an indictment of the system itself, because the producer is more of a stand in broadly for the industry.

I mean, yeah, we have Jeff Zucker in the film, but like even I think Jeff Zucker like washes his hands. He's like, I don't understand. I'm just here to make money. It's like honest. OK, like I don't like it, but it makes money.

It's like, you know what? Like, OK, I bet that is the conversation he had more or less. But the producer that Merritt Weaver plays is she is the real. I mean, if you don't want to talk about the villain of the movie, right? Like she's the villain of the movie.

She's the evil of the movie because by the end of it, she has learned nothing. And the system does continue the way, like you said, Chris Hansen went in real life. The way the movie is like, well, maybe, maybe just maybe it's like, but no, maybe like, no, maybe, sorry. That's not what happened. Yeah.

And she does give a great performance, but that's, that's what I said earlier. It's like, I wanted more of that really, because just again, not because she's a great person, but at least there's some interesting drama there. Like there's, there's definitely her. I feel like all we get is just that. Am I going to get taken away by another show?

Yes. No, maybe, but, But like there if you dug in more with the bigger questions of like, wait, why am I doing this? Should I be doing this? Like, I feel like there's she does seem like she still has a conscience, but she's like wrestling with it. And like, I feel like if we got into that a little more, it would definitely be more interesting than going through a loop of the same type of scenes with Chris Hansen over and over again.

Whereas I feel like we could give her another 10 minutes here or there and like give her her character a little more that we don't really get. But yeah, I mean, again, the final takeaway is not only did he not learn a lesson, but He liked the fact that this movie came out because he bought time to pitch his True Blue streaming service because of this movie. No matter how much they tried to make him a villain, no matter how much they showed what an asshole he was, he was like, yeah, but this is a good promotion for my thing that I'm still doing because I haven't learned a damn thing. And that I think is, you know, I think the movie is more hopeful in that regard than the real life Chris Hansen, which is the funny part.

I mean, for me about the movie is, you know, like, well, Chris Hansen in real life is, is a, you know, he's not a great guy. And it's like, well, yeah, of course he's not a great guy. I'm not surprised to learn that. I'm not saying anyone should or shouldn't be surprised, but it is one of those things where he's. Not a great guy.

Yeah. You know what I mean? That's why our hero is Skyler and we end the movie on him. The only good character and the one that came through on the other side and got something out of it, his sidecar. And it's very funny to me that that is the main character of the movie is is our kind of, you know, the ingenue, as it were, as played by Skylar Gazzando, a role that could have been played by Phoebe Bridger, but instead they gave Phoebe Bridger They gave Phoebe Bridger the smarter role, which is she has to play the male and the female kind of character, the actor, because that was the case on the original show.

The character, the actor, Del, played the male and female. Just put on the hat. The hat backwards was enough to signal male. Good enough. Good enough for the. for the perverts who didn't, uh, who weren't paying attention.

I love the one guy's like, Oh, you look very different. Oh, you're way hotter. It's like, okay. Like, well, you know what? Unrepentant to the end, I guess.

But it's, it's your, to your point, like Skylar Gazondo is the hero of the East. because he is just he is the innocent you know he's the final he is the he survives because he walks away in the end like he literally walks away and then at the end of the movie he gets his SAG card and it's like well you know what awesome like and it's it's it's such a it's I think the movie is a comedy because like it ends on a funny note like that is there's like there's no in that last scene where it's like and he got his SAG card like there's nothing else like there's no like follow up anything it's like and he got his SAG card But I'm like, that's it. Like and and the and the only person who came out in the end is the act who was pretending to be a 13 year not Chris.

Because again, like you said, we don't follow Chris Hansen after the Alex Winters character kills himself. We don't see what happens. We'd like to believe. That he changes, but we know in real life he doesn't. He does.

But the character in the movie, who knows, right? But the character in real life continues his kind of unrepentant celebratory of his own accomplishments ways. And you know what? Like we live in a time and a place, like I said, to go back to the kind of real world of it all. we live in a time and a place now where nobody is accountability is not a thing. Cancel culture.

I hate that phrase. It's accountability and accountability is, isn't in this, isn't low supply in and of itself. So, you know, and you see people that, that walk away, like literally get away with doing stuff as horrible as the things going on here. And nobody even cares anymore. So like they're, They're really not only are there no consequences for a lot of these people, especially people with power, but also that it seems like nobody cares.

Like even the people like there's no self governing of these things either. It's like you should know better than to do some of the things you're doing and you don't. And then on top of that, the society is broken down so much that we're like, oh, well, and they just walk away. So, like, again, the only consequences were self-governed by Alex Winter's character. Like, he took himself out because maybe, hopefully, he felt guilty enough to do it.

In reality, he just didn't want to get busted and go through all the shame of being outed. But, like, that's the closest we get to somebody, like, learning a lesson is like, oh, I was wrong. I have to punish myself now. But again, real world, eh, that usually doesn't even happen anymore. No, it's it's there is a stunning lack of real world punishment.

And like you said, it's weird that we live in a time and place now where a show like this feels pastoral. I mean, we talk about like, oh, like we talk about the Epstein files on a daily basis, which is alluding to multitudinous levels of child molestation, rape and assault and trafficking in a way that, you know, Chris Hansen could only dream of. I mean, that's the joke, right? Like, you know, hello, Donald, or hello, Jeffrey, take a seat, please. Would you like a cookie?

Like it's. It's that's like the Chris, Chris Hansen should go bust those people, but he can't and won't because I'm not saying he's as bad as them, but it's like those people have insulated themselves so far away from being any from accountability that there is going to never be accountability for any of those people in any capacity ever. And yeah, these are just one little guy that walks into one kitchen, you know, versus the entire operation that's functioning out there. That's allowing these things to happen. And it's hard to pat ourselves on the back for that.

It's like killing the small fish doesn't matter when the big fish continues to thrive. And that's the thing. There's an entire school out there waiting to just tear apart these children. Yeah. And that's the thing that it's like the movie.

It's not that the movie doesn't have that conversation, but that's the scary part of the conversation to have. The scary part of the conversation is, in this day and age, nobody's held accountable for anything anymore, especially the pervert. And I'm talking about the perverts doing stuff like this, and it's like, well, in this society where nobody is held accountable anymore, this show doesn't even seem that bad in reality. Because this show is actually trying to do something then like no one does anything now. So it's almost, it's almost insane to think about something like this existing where like someone was being found to do something like this online and they were being called to sit and be accosted in a room and, you know, given a hard time.

And again, like, you know, verbally assaulted in some of their cases. Like in this day and age, it's hard to think about that. You don't even get that now. Oh, it is. Again, it's weird.

Like there's so many layers as to what's going on with this movie. And I think the movie has some of the conversation, but I also think that the movie doesn't have the conversations it needs to have. And I think that that's smart in some ways, because I think it puts it on the audience to have that conversation with themselves. Yeah. Because I do think and this is kind of the weird thing about to catch a predator that I've noticed when I talk about it with people, because I like I said, I did try to do a more extended to catch a predator thing.

And I might still do it in the future because it I do think it's a it's a weird thing in and of itself. But people have mixed feelings about because it's not that people empathize or sympathize with. the predators but because of the cops of it all and the way copaganda exists now and the kind of adulation given to law enforcement and the levels we've seen of law enforcement doing bad things and not holding people accountable and again us living in a society where we see people operating at high levels of power that are doing similar, if not identical things to things that people were, you know, that's the thing about to catch a predator. None of these guys ever did any, not to the extent that we know that some of these people in the Epstein files were doing, they didn't.

Get a chance to like, they don't even let it play out that like by the second they walk in, like he leaves the room and here comes Chris Hansen. So like, we don't get, Even to the point of it getting that level of creepy. It's just you see them show up and you're like, oh, God, look at this guy. And then it's already over. He's already busted.

So it's like he doesn't get a chance to do which is good. But at the same time, it's like it's just such a weird way to treat something like that. Well, and that's the thing. I mean, that's the interesting part about the Skylar Gazondo character is we have a scene where he does his best Chris Hansen, does his best Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen impersonation. And we see the way that the Predator reacts to it.

And then we see the way Skylar Gazondo reacts to doing it. And I think it's really interesting because we get to, in that scene, understand both the power that the person doing it has, which is an immense amount of power because you're ruining the life of the person who's there, but also the power that the person doing it has. you get to see the immense amount of weight it has on the person who's doing it. Because again, we are led to believe that this Robert Pattinson version of Chris Hansen is a sociopath. and has no capacity to have this break him in any regard. And when Skylar Gazando does it one time, it's too much. It's too much for him to one time.

It takes its toll on him already, yeah. Because he's a real human being. And what's interesting is, again, I think it speaks to the pursuit of fame and fortune and being in prime time that people are. And again- I think the movie wisely doesn't make a point. I think it maybe makes too much of a point that he's already an asshole at the beginning.

He's already kind of going down that path. But I wish the film had given itself a little bit more space to have the conversation about what are the lengths people are willing to go to ignore what's best for them to try and get what they think they need. Fame, fortune, power. Because that's the interesting conversation here. Because if Chris Hansen hadn't been... an asshole to begin with and was more idealistic or more any number of things, we would have an arc of that character and it would show him like truly breaking.

As a character. But instead, we have him kind of just being terrible from the get go, which I think is an interesting choice. I just don't you don't get as much room to play with. But I do think and to be fair, we've kind of already talked about this a little bit. The length of the movie almost necessitates you to have a truncated character arc.

We're seeing like two thirds of a character arc. He was already on the rise. We're on like the front hand side of the rise already, or maybe near the top. Like we're nowhere near at the beginning. We do not see the rising action in this movie because we are coming into this with to catch a predator already existing in the world.

Of the Well, and also, he might not have even gotten to this point without being an asshole. Like, if he had stayed as the up-and-coming investigative journalist that he was and he saw the wrong going on and tried to do, like, a normal, let me get the police involved, let me do a traditional try to, you know... put together a parents group and try to help these kids. You know, how much of an impact would that have really made? I don't know. It might've helped kids more truthfully, but how much of a impact as far as him being famous and him getting a show, like none of that would have led to, to catch a predator as we knew it.

So it's like all of that came from the fact that he was kind of an asshole. He had this idea that's arguably not a good idea, but, and doesn't really accomplish much of anything in the grand scheme of things, but it made him a household name and it got him on prime time. And like, that was the more important thing to him, obviously, because that's where he ended up. So I don't know. I feel like that's also factored in to some extent is he had to be an asshole to get to this point, period.

Well, and that's the thing. It's like you said, it, I don't, I don't think that the version of Chris Hansen that's in India, that's this idealistic version of him. That's, you know, trying to, I don't think that that version exists. I think that that's the other thing about this movie that is so important is it is a film ultimately. And again, I think those shots towards the end of the film where we have Robert Pattinson kind of standing with his back to the camera in front of this giant plate glass window.

And it's like, you know, uh, lightning is going off in front of him. And it's really interesting, like just really well shot, but it's not for this kind of movie. Like that's for like an action. And I think that so much of this movie is about like the, the, the stories we tell ourselves about why we do things and our level of importance in the world and how much or how little the things that we do actually have an impact on things. Because like we've already talked about, Chris Hansen effectively did nothing.

Oh, you got like 12 pedophiles off the street. OK, true. That's more than I've gotten off the street or more than you've gotten off the street fair. Not something I've ever wanted to do. So I'm going to factor that in because that is something I never wanted to do.

So the amount I have not gotten off the street does not bother me. But the thing that he did do in the end was have a movie made about him. That ends up being the thing that's like the big takeaway is that Chris Hansen is the person he is now because of To Catch a Predator, which means Chris Hansen made a living off of and notoriety off of and fame off of the backs of pedophiles. Well, and that that India story may be a construction of this movie or it may be a real thing that he told people because he more than anybody seemed to buy into the creating the legend thing. So maybe that was the story that he told people, whether it happened or not.

Like it was maybe part of just him building up this narrative that got him to this point, whether it actually did or not. But it could also be part of that that he just presented knowing who he needed to present himself to be. And by the way, if I'm going to, you know, get crime off the streets, I'd rather do it the other Pattinson way and dress like a giant bat and just go punch people in the face. Yeah, that's the way to handle crime as far as I'm concerned with a Batmobile. Even though that character is as kind of problematic as Chris Hansen.

Which is also a sociopath. It's also very funny that, you know, Robert Pattinson has now played effectively two law and order adjacent sociopaths, or at least, you know, film portrayals of them. Because again, you know, Chris Hansen as a real person, whether or not he's actually like this, this is very much a inflated version of the person he probably wishes he could be at the end of the day. I think nobody likes that presentation of him as much as he will publicly disagree with, oh, I don't think you got this right or that. But the fact that it mythologizes him this much, he has to be feeding off that.

Just knowing the type of person he is, he has to just be loving that a little bit. And again, he, you know, part of the movie does talk about the self-mythologizing that goes into, you know, feeling like the things that you do are not heaven sent, but, you know, run a mission from God. I mean, there is part of that in this movie. Like, Chris Hansen feels like what he is doing is... on on another plane of calling from just making television you know we have merit weaver's character being asked you know to go and do a show which it's so funny because again like merit weaver is not a real person she is being based on a a like handful of or a amalgamation of other people but the show that she is being asked to go and work on was a real show what would.

You do Which is a real show. Still is a real show. And it's very funny because in one scene she goes, I don't like people that copy my fucking show. And it's like, I'd like to point out that that show is not the same because that show is a uplifting, positive show. Yes, it is emotionally manipulative and weird, but it is nowhere near as fucking weird and fucked up as what to catch a predator.

It's like, yeah, I was like, I, as they pitched that, I was like, oh, well, that's the reason that show is still a show. It's because it's the nice version. It's, it's the, it's taking the same scenario of like, well, we've got a hidden camera and we've got this weird scenario that we're setting up, but we're not spending time with pedophiles. Instead, we're giving you the story of like, look at these poor characters and like, we've got people defending them and you know, it is uplifting and that's why it's still on right now. And instead, you know, she goes like, I don't like when people copy my fucking idea.

And I love that about this movie, because this is the kind of movie that needs a character like that, that is willing to go that length and be like, you're like, again, like stoop beyond where you would think a character could go to in this movie. And that's why I think like the producer, the character that Merritt Weaver plays really is the villain of the piece because it's like by the end of it, it's just about getting the footage and nothing else. She's just not delusional. Like you've got your other character who thinks that he's a hero and thinks what he's doing makes a difference. She's realistic enough. to know, no, we've just got to get this episode done.

We've got to get the rating. Because it's entertainment. Because that's our job. And I want to keep my job because I make a lot of money. She's just a realistic person.

And I also think, you know, the movie takes the task. And again, it's a question of, you know, if you're someone who makes content for a living, Is the content that you're making, are you expecting it to make a change in the world or are you just obligated to entertain people? And I think, you know, this idea of why I'm making something because I have a higher calling or my higher calling justifies the way I do things or the treatment of people. I mean, you always hear about someone like Hitchcock. Well, he got such good performances out of people.

The ends did not justify the means. Treating people that way did not justify anything. Like, the great movie, sure, but it doesn't justify treating people. Like, and that's, again, to go back to, like, To Catch a Predator, like, I think the Chris Hansen character by the end of the movie has that kind of, like, epiphany moment of, like, my crusade is for naught, because even now when I feel like I'm taking down the whale, I'm not, in fact, actually doing anything, and I have not made a dent in anything. And I like that the.

Movie is willing to say that, because that is not a comfortable part of this conversation, to say, like, well, you effectively... other than make yourself more famous, which nobody wants to hear that. Of course, nobody wants to hear that. I wouldn't want to hear that. I wouldn't want to hear that the thing that I did didn't do anything other than make me money when the thing that I was doing was something I thought was of a higher calling or more noble purpose. Who would want to hear that?

I don't know. At this point, I think we're getting a lot of people like that. But you know what I. Mean in terms of Chris Hansen. Ideally, yes.

Again, to go back to the Chris Hansen of it all and him feeling offended by this movie or not a fan of it. I don't think this movie was being made for him to be a fan of it. I think it was being made intentionally for him to not resonate with this movie. It's weird that he likes it as much as he does. Right.

Oh, yeah. No, totally. And that's the other like for me, that's the other thing that is mildly hilarious about this movie is if I were Chris Hansen, I would not have said a damn word about this. I would have let this movie just come out and ride the wave of the fact that this movie has come out and nothing else, because why would you talk about this movie openly like what? To say it does not paint a positive picture of you is being kind.

It is like, again, it is a biopic. It takes him to task and says, you effectively wasted your time. You did nothing of value other than make yourself famous. At the end of the day, that is what the movie is saying. you know, regardless of the moral implications of Skylar, what Skylar Gazando's character is doing or Phoebe Bridger or anyone else by the end of the movie, it is saying all you did was make yourself famous. Like it is saying that.

So I, yeah. But in actuality, Chris Hansen liked Robert Pattinson getting his voice down and thought it was a very dramatic movie. Like he still has good things to say about it. Which is fucking hilarious. Like, it's just, of course.

And again, maybe that speaks to the person that Chris Hansen actually is at the core of things, which is maybe he is more like this version of the Robert Pattinson character than anyone else would like to give him credit for, himself included. And you know what? That might be the case. I don't know. I've never met the guy, and I don't want to.

Because frankly, again, someone who goes to the lengths that he went to to do the things that he did only for the betterment of himself it's not someone that you know it would be like me in the position that I am in as a pot as someone who helped you know found a podcast network talking about my success on the network and no one else's because mine is the only one that matters and it's like dude come on like what the fuck are you doing like this is not a single per person operation this is not a single focus operation it does not all start and stop with me And Chris Hansen, in this movie at least, and maybe the real person, is seemingly that way. He is a believer of his own bullshit. And when you start believing your own bullshit is when things start to kind of become dicey.

When you start calling the vending machine company because your $ 1. 50 got lost in the Rice Krispie machine and it got stuck. You've kind of gone past where most people are. Most people aren't going to do, but you're Chris. I shouldn't be treated this way.

I am Chris Hansen. Exactly. And it's, and it's, and it's kind of, again, I think it's a, it's interesting that it's an indictment of that kind of behavior on top of everything. Maybe not direct, but I think just by the way Robert Pattinson plays that Chris Hansen character, it is definitely, it's still. A good amount of it.

I feel like. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I, I do think if you're trying to describe this movie to someone, I do think it's kind of a horror movie. or horror movie adjacent. It uses horror movie tropes.

I mean, there's literally a jump scare at one point where he shows up soaking wet in a doorway, and everyone reacts to him like he's a serial killer, like Michael Myers. And again, they're. Playing with those conventions, but it is kind of this weird, I'm not going to say A24 movie, but it definitely is an A24. But it is. But it definitely is.

There are A24 movies that come out that don't feel like A24 movies. This is smack dab right in the middle of that A24 oomph. I mean, even the aspect ratio of the film is shot in. We didn't even talk about that, but again, it's just the film, I think, I guess the spot I wanted to end in terms of talking about the film specifically was How much legs does this film have, in your opinion? Having seen a lot of these kinds of movies in our lifetime, where does this one land?

Does it have long legs or no? In what sense? Because I feel like it had a decent opening, especially for a movie type of this. But do I think it's going to make a difference in any way? Not really.

Do I think people are going to be talking about it in even a year or two? Probably not. If anything, maybe that was a really good Pattinson performance, but as far as like impact of the story, probably not. Yeah. I don't, I, I don't know if Pattinson, cause I know that it got a lot of, uh, you know, good reviews at can, but I don't know.

I don't know if come award season, this ends up moving the needle. Well, especially not for him because he's got so many other things he's already got four other movies that are in the running. So he's, If anything, he's canceling himself out with each new movie that comes out. I was going to say, what is better than this? I don't...

Well, I don't know. What would you put as better than this that he has been in this year? I just recently watched the drama. I really liked it. I think everybody's giving a great performance.

So that one, I don't know that it showcases him more than her or anybody else, but like he's definitely really good in that. Um, the spectacle of, of the, our, our giant medieval tale there. I mean, we're, we're, That one just has so much pull. I think we're going to have a lot of nominations coming out of that period. I don't know if he gets supporting actor because I don't know if he's got that much screen time, but I don't know.

Again, I think I like the drama performance better, but that's just because at least it it has like a place to land where this one just feels like it's good moment to moment. But by the end, you're like, I don't know what to do with it. Well, I was going to say I completely 100% agree. I loved him in the drama. Yeah, about as I would say about as much as I could love a performance from Robert Pattinson, which is to say, like, this is close, but it's not it is not to the level of his performance in the drama.

I think for me, the drama might still be my favorite movie of the year so far. It was really good. It's it was amazing. And, you know, I know that there are some people that are like the school shooting. They shut the fuck up.

Like, that's literally the point of the goddamn movie. It's a movie about being alive in the time of oversharing, where it's like the fucking... Again, I think it's an interesting co-piece to this, because again, it's a movie kind of about thought crimes, the way that this one is, again, somewhat about thought crimes of a different variety, but maybe also of a similar kind. I think Robert Pattinson is much better in that movie in terms of, like you said, giving a performance that has... an ending and. It's balanced it gives you different aspects of him there are times when you're like oh i can't believe he's going down this road but at the same time there's other times when i'm like no he's a he's a pretty great guy here so it's like it gives him a lot more room to kind of give a balanced performance whereas here you know it's just how much lower can this guy.

Go Well, and that's my thing. I think for me, Skylar Gazando in this movie is the one who should be actually given some kind of reappraisal around award time. And I don't like talking about awards, but this is an awardee style movie. Definitely wants to be anyway. Yeah, definitely.

And I think for me, if you talk about the people who could get nominated out of this movie, Skylar Gazando should be up there. I mean, he's great. He is such a different kind of character. such a tonally tonal 180 from Robert Pattinson in this movie. And I really enjoyed what he brought to the film. And I also think, you know, you already mentioned it.

Alex Winter is really good in this movie. Yeah, it could be one of those like he's in it for five minutes and gets the supporting actor nomination. I don't know if it's that good, but it's pretty good. And for someone who kind of like a key cake one type situation where, you know, he was in a movie in the eighties that a bunch of people saw, but kind of hasn't moved the needle with anybody other than up until recently with something like this, or, you know, everything everywhere all at once in his, you know, in his kind of case, like maybe that's what it would, you know, there's always a, an extra spot for a kind of dark horse and just getting nominated would give Alex winter a lot of Yeah. You know, I mean, he's a he's a director now, so he doesn't really like stars a lot.

He's not normally worried about that. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I don't know. He's it's weird.

Like the humanization in this movie is given to the characters one would not think. And and the actors who are given those opportunities to do that really rise to the occasion in a way that I was again, not that I wasn't expecting, but I you know, I didn't know Alex Winter was in this movie. Yeah, I didn't until I sat down. Right, same. I just feel like he doesn't have enough time, but Skyler does.

I could definitely see, if they push for best supporting actor, I could see him getting a nomination at least. Yeah, and I think it would be well-deserved, because he really is the emotional core of this movie, and that's... you know, it's, it's arguable that he's more of a lead truthfully, but I mean, they should push, they should push for supporting if you're going to get it. So yeah, he, he 100% is the lead of the movie, but yeah, no, he, uh, he, I don't know. He just isn't because the film is a film about Chris Hansen. He just isn't billed as the lead, but he is 100.

And he would never get nominated at that point. Yeah, no, no. I, uh, I really enjoyed this movie and I'm glad that I'm glad that we decided to watch it. It does kind of ask some interesting questions of the audience. but I do kind of agree with you. I think I probably liked it a little bit more than you did, but I can concede that this movie does miss some opportunities that I think if I had been writing this movie, I would have taken.

I'm glad I rose. I would have gone down. I'm glad I saw it. I'm impressed with so much of it, as I said. I just feel like it doesn't push as far as it needs to in some areas, and it just sort of keeps beating the horse over here.

So I would like it to be a little more balanced in certain ways. I was going to say, as a follow-up to this movie, did you get the trailer for Lance's next movie? I did not. I got the trailer for You Can See Everything, which is pretty amazing just as a trailer. Have you seen the trailer for it?

Yeah, that's the that's the one for the documentary. The one with Nathan Fielder. Yes. Who that's a weird take on it too, because I don't know that you see Lance, but Nathan Fielder is like, he's Michael Moore in this thing. Like he is co-lead of his own documentary in this thing.

It is surprising how much screen time he has in a documentary about someone else. But like, he has definitely put himself right in the middle of the story and it seems super tense and super weird. And it's really interesting. I'm, More concerned that it's a three hour documentary. But as you said earlier, sometimes you want more time spent with these people to figure out what's going on.

And if so, this is the one that's going to deliver it because, yeah, it is damn near three hours to one of those. It sounds like it's going to be like a hangout piece. which, which like, okay, like, you know what? Like if it's a vibe movie, I would definitely say like, Jen's ears are of a vibe. Like they do love a good vibe. They love a vibe thing.

Like they like to use the term vibe. Vibes are a thing that they care about. And I'm with them like this movie. And I definitely think, you know, you can see everything. Like, I think it is, it is a vibe or trying to in a create a vibe or in this film's case in, uh, primetime's case live within a vibe um.

I think both are super creepy and it's gonna be an uncomfortable vibe if you're hanging out for three hours with elizabeth holmes because it is just those snippets in the trailer i'm like yeah this is weird this is uncomfortable right now and we're just like five minutes of it so yeah it'll be interesting. She's She's a weird one, and I'm excited to see... Nathan Fielder has a... He's very Andy Kaufman. He just kind of exists as this weird...

I'm doing performance art, but sort of, but not really. But this is a documentary, but I'm sort of doing a performance. Yeah, it's fucking weird. But I love him as... kind of a mind and the things that he comes up with. So, you know, and I would say, you know, Lance Oppenheim, I'm excited to see what he does as a director as well.

You know, it's a prime. Time is interesting. And I, you know, he didn't write the script. So that's the other thing, you know, a John Singh, I'm excited to see what they write next as well. They have an interesting eye and mind for things.

And this is not your everyday Chris Hansen. This is not your everyday movie, period. No, which is even better. It'll be interesting, yeah, to see where you go with a more traditional story, I guess. If you go with a traditional story.

If you do. Yeah, because it's, to call the film a psycho thriller crime film is like, it's just, it's like none of those things really but at the same time yeah it's all of those things and also a weird like pseudo horror movie like it's yeah I would implore anyone who's a fan of To Catch a Predator to watch the film but I also understand how people would watch this film and just be like I don't get it and I'm not sure that It needs to be understood as anything other than like, again, a kind of piece of film talking about something that other things have also talked about. Maybe better and probably better in some cases, but it's of a piece of a kind of thing. And those kinds of things come out every couple years.

And there will be another one here in the 10 years that does something similar. And this one maybe isn't as good as those, but it's different because it has its own trappings and vibe and look and aesthetic and the aesthetic is drives a lot of what makes this film kind of so interesting and I don't know I'm excited to see where everybody involved in this film goes but definitely the director and the screenwriter and you know obviously Robert Pattinson I think you know I i just he's had such a downer year i don't know how he's gonna come back next. I just hope he doesn't like pedro pascal himself where he's just like fucking in everything and i'm just like i'm sick and tired. Of everybody is sick of him unfortunately so yeah but that's also because i think pedro pascal has.

A limited range like as a and i think it's like been made very apparent by all the things he's been in where i'm like you being in this does not add anything like. Yeah, Robert is very different in different roles. He brings a lot to the table as far as characterization. So yeah, I don't think he should run into that as easy, but you got to factor that stuff in when you're making these decisions. Yeah, Pedro Pascal is just charming.

And you can get away with that. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but it's like Ryan Reynolds, right? You're just always doing the same thing. You. have you as a personality have exceeded what you can bring to the screen and now you're just being cast in things because of who you are. As you.

Yeah, as you. And you hit a wall with people. Everybody loves Ryan Reynolds until they're sick of him and then they're just done with him no matter what he does. So you paint yourself in that corner too. Like, well, now I can't do anything good or bad because people just don't want to watch me, period.

And Pedro Pascal has been on that kind of kick since what? The Mandalorian? Like the first... second season of the mandalorian something like that where it's just like definitely every definitely by the time he's in fantastic four people are like really this guy all right fine yeah yeah yeah i feel like that was the bridge too far for most people like you could have cast anybody and you cast this guy this guy again nothing wrong with this guy but like i like him but here We have to eat steak three nights this week. God damn. So much steak.

Well, that's the problem. Like he's so, the problem is like, he's so fucking charming. That's like, it's complaining about a riches of things. Like with Robert Pattinson, like, please don't go make another good movie. Robert Pattinson, like, And that's the thing, like Pedro Pascal, looking at the things he was in, it's not like any of them were particularly terrible or awful.

It's just like, I don't need to see you in like every big thing. And that's, you know, my concern with Robert Pattinson is that same like, well, is he going to be in like five million goddamn things from here until eternity? It's like, well, he's been in a ton of stuff in 2026. That's for sure. So he said no more good stuff.

So now it's time to bust out that straight to streaming vampire movie he's got in him. Yeah, my God. Work of a David Goyer or somebody like that. My God, can you fucking imagine Robert Pattinson lowering himself to the status of a B-tier actor like Jai Courtney? I've seen a lot of stuff that pops up on Netflix.

I'm like, wait, what the hell is this? I've never even heard of it. Things just come out now and just don't go anywhere. That's the name of the game. Oh, Lord.

Well, Brian, when you and I aren't sitting and doing crossover episodes of the Culture Meltdown, where can people find the things that you work on? Audio. Well, I am now... happily part of the, the weirding way family. So definitely go hit that on speaker and all of us are there and I'm thrown in the middle of that now. So I'm glad to be there.

Um, if you don't know how to find your way there, uh, movie meltdown.com always kind of has the links to lead you to everything. So yeah, go see what is in the running or follow us on the social medias and I'll put something up telling you what's coming next. And as for me, like Brian said, weirdingwaymedia.com is where you can go to find this show and so many other great shows like The Projection Booth or The Feminine Critique or Midnight Viewing or 80s TV Ladies or Filmentaries or I could keep going, but you should just go on over to Weirding Way Media where there are a lot of shows that you should be listening to. If you're not... Well, what's stopping you?

Nothing, because they're free. If you want to engage financially with this show, patreon.com slash culturecast is where you can do that. Kick a couple dollars my way if you want to, but like, rate, and review any Weirding Way Media show on iTunes, then Spotify, in that order, because that's the order that helps, because shockingly, people still use iTunes for podcasts. So that's where you can go to do that. And yeah, come on back for the next episode where we're not talking about Chris Hansen, I promise.

He'll worm his way in there, don't you worry. That's what he does best.