Robert Pattinson’s generational run continues

In May we saw the teaser for Primetime, the film in which Robert Pattinson stars as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen. Now, as the film readies for a Venice launch, we have a full trailer, and holy HELL, RPattz is on a crazy run right now. Every performance is a banger, he is doing stuff no one else is doing. So many people try to be eccentric artists (coughJakeGyllenhaalcough), so few truly ARE eccentric artists. RPattz IS an eccentric artist, and his performances reflect his eccentricity.

And Primetime looks like a perfect match between actor and director, because documentarian Lance Oppenheim loves weirdos and he never approaches weirdos and their very specific fixations in a straight line. Primetime looks like a thriller, has the energy of original recipe Four Loko, and is centered on RPattz going full RPattz. What I said about Connor Storrie and the effort actors give when they know the material is beneath them? Well, Robert Pattinson’s before/afters were interesting, too (not for nothing, Storrie reminds me a lot of early days RPattz). He never phoned it in, not even in that bizarre fever dream of a movie, Remember Me, a September 11^th romantic dramedy about SEPTEMBER EEE-LEV-ENTH. That is a real movie that exists. Hundreds of people worked on it. What were thoughts? I would love to know.

Now that he has material to match his effort, Robert Pattinson is on a generational run. Just this decade he’s given brilliant performances in everything from Christopher Nolan’s most incomprehensible (in every possible way) movie, Tenet; to a genre-defining turn in The Batman; to playing multiple unhinged roles in Mickey 17; to giving a hall of fame villain performance in The Odyssey; to nailing the nightmare boyfriend role in Die My Love and The Drama. Now, he’s going full loose canon in Primetime, and I cannot wait.

I am a little miffed about that September release date, if only because September is traditionally a soft month for movies, and I feel like an October or November release date would signal more serious intent on A24’s part to back an Oscar run, but if and when Robert Pattinson goes on an Oscar run, he’ll do it dragging his distributor backwards through the hedge. So far, he has not been the kind of actor to approach his work like he’s hunting trophies. When it happens, it’s going to be f-cking nuts because that is all he’s interested in right now is giving bananas performances in great movies, which means it will probably happen for one of those bananas performances.

Maybe it will happen with Primetime, maybe it won’t happen for another 10-20 years. People will say “it’s his time”, but what they’ll mean is “he’s too weird for us but we can’t ignore him any longer”. Robert Pattinson will probably thank instant oatmeal in his acceptance speech, because there’s no way his Oscar moment will be normal. Not for the guy who lies to journalists for fun and profit.