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A Columbia/Tristar release. Written by Michael Gerbosi; directed by Paul Schrader; starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe. Released to DVD on March 25, 2003. Released to DVD on March 25, 2003.  When writer/director Paul Schrader announced that he was going to be making a biopic about actor Bob Crane, former star of TV’s Hogan’s Heroes, I couldn’t figure out why. What was it that made Crane a figure worthy of a feature-length movie? As best I can see, Crane’s distinction was that he was a semi-famous sex addict who enjoyed filming his adulterous sexcapades with women and then got caught by his wife. Set in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, Auto Focus is the tale of Crane’s friendship with audio/video guru, John Carpenter (not the famed director) and their carnal daliances together... both on and off camera. However, this plot summary still doesn’t do much to explain why anyone would be interested in watching a film about Bob Crane, much less spending months on end making said movie. And in the end, this question goes unanswered as it never really becomes apparent what the point of this material is. Greg Kinnear does a phenomenal acting job as the jovial and horny Crane and Willem Dafoe brings a Dafoe-like menace to the role of Carpenter, but these two strong acting performances could do little to disguise the fact that Auto Focus is merely another rambling, sporadically-paced, uninteresting, pseudo-intellectual biopic that seems intent on glamorizing home made porn.
jake lever yes, it's true: The tagline for Auto Focus is "A Day Without Sex is a Day Wasted". | |||||
