A24's "Primetime" stars Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen, dramatizing the making of NBC's "To Catch a Predator" in 2006. It premiered at Venice to a multi-minute standing ovation, and critics gave it reviews scoring in the low-to-mid 90s percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It opens nationwide Friday, September 25. A24 never consulted Hansen or involved him in making it, and as of today he still hasn't seen it.

1. This Is About The Show, Not The Man (Lance Oppenheim, director; A24; critics)

The filmmakers say they're targeting the spectacle that "To Catch a Predator" turned justice into, not Hansen himself.

The original show was "a form of performative justice." Lance Oppenheim, who directed "Primetime," compares its on-camera confrontations to a pillory or a whipping post: "It's ingrained in our DNA to want this spectacle of justice."

The character already existed before Pattinson ever showed up. Oppenheim says Hansen is "not just the crusading journalist" but "an entertainer" who's fully aware of his own media persona — someone who's now "a strange, self-aware, hyper-performative version of himself."

This is about what the work does to people. Oppenheim frames the whole project around one question: "How do you maintain a sense of self when you're doing this dark work 24/7, 365?"

The director has stayed notably calm about Hansen's complaints. He won't relitigate the screening dispute directly — "I wasn't there when that all happened" — but says he hopes Hansen sees the film. Borrowing Hansen's own catchphrase, he says he's "excited for him to 'have a seat,' and watch the movie in a movie theater."

The film's star is rooting for Hansen to come around, too. Robert Pattinson calls Hansen "magnetic" and hopes the film reads as a compliment, pointing to "the amount of inspiration his character has given a lot of people for years."

2. This Is A Hit Job, And He'd Do The Sting Again (Chris Hansen)

Hansen says nobody asked him, the film is fiction dressed as fact, and he has no regrets about the case that got the show canceled.

He calls the movie an insult to real investigators. He says it turns the work of "the thousands of men and women who work hard every day to protect children from predators" into "essentially a horror film."

He's calling it dishonest before he's even seen it. As of today, Hansen describes "Primetime" as "disingenuous, disrespectful, and kind of dirty the way they did it," while confirming he still hasn't watched a frame of it. He plans to see it Thursday, "at a theater, with all the other moviegoers."

He thinks Pattinson is overselling him. Going off the trailer alone, Hansen calls the performance "overly dramatic" and questions why Hollywood is dramatizing the show at all.

He has zero regrets about the sting that got the show canceled. Asked if the 2006 case ever cost him sleep, Hansen said "No," adding: "We were covering what the police were doing. The police decided to do it, and we covered it like any other arrest we would cover in the course of reporting the story."

He disputes A24's account of why he skipped an early screening. Hansen says A24 asked him to "sign away my rights" before he could watch it; A24 describes the paperwork as a standard spoiler NDA.

He's fighting the film with his own advertising. Hansen bought preshow ad space to run ads for his true-crime network, TruBlu, in front of every "Primetime" screening during the movie's first month in theaters. Deadline reports he's also considering legal action over how the film depicts him.

3. The Underlying Sting Tactics Were The Real Problem (Critic Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com; The Hollywood Reporter's review; the Conradt family's 2008 case)

Reviewers argue the film is right to treat the show's methods, not just Hansen's ego, as the story.

The show's own tactics don't hold up. Matt Zoller Seitz calls "Primetime" "an ethics drama with a horror movie heart." He writes that "To Catch a Predator" was already controversial before its legal trouble, for using "subterfuge and manipulation" in what some considered "vigilante entrapment."

One review goes further. The Hollywood Reporter says the show's sting operations "uncomfortably skirt the dubious boundaries of entrapment," framing the film as an inquiry into "performative justice, moral superiority and public shaming as crude fuel for reality television."

A federal judge reached a similar conclusion, back in 2008. After Texas assistant DA Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. died by suicide as a SWAT team and a Dateline crew arrived to arrest him in a 2006 sting, his sister Patricia sued NBC for $105 million. A federal judge let the case proceed, finding a jury could conclude NBC "crossed the line from responsible journalism to irresponsible and reckless intrusion into law enforcement." Patricia Conradt herself said an "out-of-control reality show" had encouraged police to act as "a judge, jury and executioner," and her attorney, Bruce Baron, called the ruling proof "no one is above the law, no matter how powerful."

Where This Lands

Oppenheim and Pattinson say the film targets a spectacle, not a person, and they're hoping Hansen eventually watches it and comes around. Hansen says the spectacle was legitimate reporting, the film is unfair fiction, and he's already fighting back with ads and possibly a lawsuit before he's seen a single scene. Critics and a federal court finding from 2008 back the film's underlying premise: the sting tactics themselves, not just Hansen's TV persona, were the real controversy.

Sources