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'Prime Time' Review: A Polish Man Takes a TV Studio Hostage in Slick but Hollow Netflix Thriller
'Prime Time' Review: A Polish Man Takes a TV Studio Hostage in Slick but Hollow Netflix Thriller
The star of 'Corpus Christi' returns as another antihero, but Jakub Piatek's debut feature gives him little to rebel against.
Dennis Harvey, provided by
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With: Bartosz Bielenia, Magdalena Poplawska, Andrzej Klak, Malgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Cezary Kosinski, Dobromir Dymecki, Monika Frajczyk, Juliusz Chrzastrowski.
Running time: Running time: 91 MIN.
After roiling a Polish village as an impostor priest in Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” star Bartosz Bielenia tries to rattle the entire nation in “Prime Time.” His character here is another malcontent, this one armed and ready to take over a TV studio on New Year’s Eve with a special message for the world. But he’s a bit too literally a rebel without a cause: We never discover just what this protagonist’s protesting gripe is. That lack makes director Jakub Piatek and co-writer Lukasz Czapski’s first feature a familiar hostage drama whose anticipated narrative raison d’etre is strangely MIA. The slick, watchable but ultimately somewhat pointless results, which premiered at Sundance six months ago, launch worldwide on Netflix June 30.