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.
It’s New Year’s Eve 1999 at a Krakow network affiliate, and despite the Y2K fears glimpsed on other stations’ broadcasts, just another night’s labor for the staff here.
It’s New Year’s Eve 1999 at a Krakow network affiliate, and despite the Y2K fears glimpsed on other stations’ broadcasts, just another night’s labor for the staff here.
- 6/29/2021
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Pop culture, entertainment, hedonism—they’re all different sides to the same brain atrophy. Well, that’s how Sebastian (Bartosz Bielenia) sees it. He’s a 20-year-old kid with a statement to prove and he isn’t above going postal to do it. The main wrinkle in his plan is that he needs other people to see it, and everyone else is too busy ringing in the new millennium. Yep, there are only four hours left of 1999 in Warsaw when Sebastian enters a television studio with a gun and a backpack. Soon enough, he also has two hostages. One is the TV host, Mira (Magdalena Poplawska), the other a security guard (Andrzej Kłak).
But while this sort of pressure cooker seems like it’d play out in real-time, it doesn’t. This standoff goes on for four hours, but Jakub Piatek’s Prime Time is only 93 minutes including credits. Maybe...
But while this sort of pressure cooker seems like it’d play out in real-time, it doesn’t. This standoff goes on for four hours, but Jakub Piatek’s Prime Time is only 93 minutes including credits. Maybe...
- 1/31/2021
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
Jakub Piątek’s ’Prime Time; won the Screen International Best Pitch award
Jakub Piątek’s feature debut Prime Time was the winner of the second annual Screen International Best Pitch award presented as part of this week’s Polish Film Days which ran as a virtual event from July 27-29.
Prime Time is based on the true story of a hostage-taking in a TV studio in front of live cameras. The screenplay is written by Piątek and Lukasz Czapski and was developed at Torino Film Lab Extended and New Horizons Studio+ last year.
The €1m project is a co-production between...
Jakub Piątek’s feature debut Prime Time was the winner of the second annual Screen International Best Pitch award presented as part of this week’s Polish Film Days which ran as a virtual event from July 27-29.
Prime Time is based on the true story of a hostage-taking in a TV studio in front of live cameras. The screenplay is written by Piątek and Lukasz Czapski and was developed at Torino Film Lab Extended and New Horizons Studio+ last year.
The €1m project is a co-production between...
- 7/30/2020
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.