Ty Watches "Primetime"

I have just returned to my home from the movie "Primetime" and I have some thoughts. This is going to be a spoiler free review. It is also going to be shorter than most of my reviews. I wanted to do a quicker, kind of gut reaction type review for you all today.

"Primetime" came to me later than most. I had heard that there was going to be a movie centered around Chris Hansen and his tv show, "To Catch a Predator". But I kind of dismissed it. Then RD kept talking about it. Then I saw the teaser trailer. Then I saw a full trailer last week when I went to see "Resident Evil", and I was all in. I have become a big time Robert Pattison fan over the years, so him starring in yet another A24 movie was more than enough for me. Add in the fact that Lance Oppenheim was directing, and that made it even more enticing. Now, when "To Catch A Predator" was first on tv, I did not watch. I believe my folks had the show on in the house, yes I was still living with my parents back then, back I just saw it in passing. So, this was kind of like a history lesson for me, just a fictionalized version.

"Primetime" is a very well made and extremely well acted movie. I really liked what I saw today. The story was way different from what I was expecting going in, and that is a very good thing. It was nice to go in with fresh eyes in my case. Robert Pattison is as good as everyone is saying he is in this role. He became Chris Hansen, but played him with this quiet and unnerving obsessiveness. He was clearly a person who had a vision and was going to see it through, come hell or high water. Pattison embodied this. Watching him terrified me at times. Other times I'd roll my eyes at how nonsensical his ideas were in this movie. Some compared this performance to what Jake Gyllenhall did in "Nightcrawler", and that feels right to me.  Pattison is great.

Sklyer Gisondo is up to the task as well. He plays naive and easy to manipulate wonderfully in this movie. He let himself fall into Hansen's trance and Gisonso nailed it. I actually felt bad for him, and I think that was the goal.

Merritt Wever is amazing. I felt like her performance should be talked about as much as Pattinson's. She is amazing in this role. She is cold and calculated. When she starts to get forgotten or passed by, I found myself rooting for her to win in the end. I loved the stuff she did when she was talking to Gisondo's character when they first meet. It is a transformative performance from one of the most underrated actors right now. Wever is so, so good in this role.

What made me love this movie was the visuals and the story. The movie looks so cool and feels like classic A24. It may sound weird to say "classic A24", but this had that feel for me. The colors were super cool that they used as well. As for the story, like I said above, it was different from what I expected going in. I liked that the movie kind of faked me out. It made me look at this whole world in a totally different direction than I went in with. I thought they showed the good and the bad very well. This movie does not hold back from anything, and that made it even more watchable. It doesn't take a side either, letting the viewer dictate what they want out of it, which is always good for me.

I recommend this movie. It has some tough to watch scenes, but that comes with the territory. But I say, for Pattison and Wever's performances alone, this movie is definitely worth your time and money. There's some really good stuff to see. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late than Never on "Booksmart"

Continuing with movies I wanted to see, and didn't have the time or will to go see them in the theater, my wife and I sat down on Saturday night, our self isolation/quarantine date night now, and we watched "Booksmart".

I had heard a ton, a ton of good things about the movie. People I read, and who's opinions I trust, said glowing things about the movie. And I wanted to go out and see it in the theaters. But, for whatever reason, or reasons, we just couldn't find the time. I had forgotten about the movie, but I just recently finished "Movies (And Other Things)", and there is a tremendous chapter about the greatness of this movie. This reinvigorated my interest. We were then looking for a movie to watch, and I saw it on Hulu.

We watched it, and man, this movie was more than worth the hype. It not only lived up to it, for me, it surpassed it. I know a lot of people have compared it to "Superbad", and that is fair, but "Booksmart" is a movie all on its own. It has its own story and characters and direction and the way everything unfolds. While it shares a similar plot to "Superbad", two high school seniors trying to party before graduation, "Booksmart" stands apart.

First off, the two leads, Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever, have an tremendous chemistry. Jonah Hill, who is Feldstein's brother by the way, and Michael Cera had great chemistry, but not like these two. The way they interacted with one another was perfection. My wife and I both loved the scenes where they talked each other up after they got dressed to go to the party. Those two scenes were perfection. The way they went on, and the fact that Olivia Wilde just let them go on, was great. They would constantly compliment one another until it was almost too much. But, it never got to the feeling of too much. It was just right. Also, I truly believed that these two were best friends. I read somewhere that they roomed together for ten weeks or something, and that helped build a bond that totally shows up on screen. All the stuff, the dancing, the stresses to getting to the party, the ridiculous stuff that kids have to deal with in high school, the crushes, even the way they left, it all felt so real. I thought back to when I was in high school, and their relationship reminded me of some I had in high school with some of my closest friends. But, they seemed closer. Feldstein was dynamite in this movie too. She was the overachieving, laser focused, top student in school. But, she was also hilarious, took no shit and held her own. Dever played her best friend who is all about protesting, human rights, equality for all, but is also very, very scared to take any real big chances. For example, she has to be pushed to hit on the girl she has a crush on. She is terrified to do it, and when pushed, she finally does, but it does not go well. But, Feldstein does push a little too much, and when she goes past the limit, they have a humongous fight, and I loved the way this scene was shot. They start to argue, we hear them at first, but then it goes silent. They are still arguing, but Wilde pans the room, and all the kids are watching, with their phones on and recording, and you can tell it is over when Feldstein finally mouths, "F You". It was awesome, and kind of powerful in its own way.

Feldstein and Dever clearly make the movie, but everyone else in it was great. Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow as Dever's folks, they were wonderful. So polite and giving and supportive. Skyler Gisondo, as one of their classmates, was sweet and unassuming and dorky in his own way, but thought he was cool. That kid is about to blow up. Billie Lourd was hilarious, and one of the true standouts of the movie. She just showed up everywhere, gave the girls drugs without their knowledge, seemed to have a screw loose, but was just outstanding. She stole the scenes she was in. The rest of the high school kids were perfectly cast. It all worked. As far as the faculty, they focused on two people, the principal, played by Jason Sudeikis, and a teacher, played by Jessica Williams, and they ruled. Sudeikis clearly hated his job, and had a second job as a Lyft driver, which resulted in a fantastically hilarious scene. Williams was the teacher that the two girls loved, and she totally pulled off the cool teacher vibes. She was great. Even someone like Mike O'Brien, in a very small role, was memorable, especially near the end. But when it comes down to it, Feldstein and Dever totally owned this movie. They were so fantastic. I cannot get over how funny and how real everything they did felt.

This is a movie I should have seen much, much sooner. But, I am glad that I have watched it, and now I can sing its praises. Check out "Booksmart". It is one of the better comedies to come out in a long, long time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.