Illegal (2011)

Primetime is sure to make audiences bite their fingernails every single second from the opening logos to the end credits. That much is obvious. The question is, does it actually earn this tension, or does it merely rely on its subject matter to make itself tense?

In other words, any movie that uses the subject of child predation is going to make the audience nervous.It is the most horrible thing on planet Earth, unambiguously. Primetime goes one step further in setting itself up for dramatic success by using To Catch a Predator as its subject matter, possibly the most infamous television show in history. Everyone in the United States has at least heard of this show and knows what the basic premise is, and many people know how and why it ended. In that sense, Primetime is indeed set up to succeed, but on the other hand, A24 has pitted itself against monumental expectations, as well as a near universally-known spoiler for the most important part of the film.

That seems to be one of the reasons why Primetime feels empty – or, at the very least, gives the audience a sense of emptiness.When you know how the movie ends, and when your expectations are merely met (if that) during virtually all the scenes, you are bound to feel a sense that something is missing. But there’s more to it than that.