Auto Focus continues filmmaker Paul Schrader's fascination with how the male personality can disintegrate. It joins a number of films he has written or directed in which some mutant gene, some strange quirk in the emotional fabric, condemns a man to obsessive behavior he can neither fix nor abandon.
This time it's the story of actor and radio personality Bob Crane, whose hidden gene caused him to become addicted to sex and pornography, leading him into a murky world that ended with his murder in 1978.
Despite all of Schrader's films delving into this theme, the director's focus on this troubled character remains peculiarly fuzzy. Schrader seemingly has no point of view about Crane. We watch a life fall apart as one could observe an organism under a microscope -- with neither passion nor compassion. It comes awfully close to an exercise in morbidity.
Sony Pictures Classics will need all of Schrader's marquee power along with that of stars Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe to draw the curious to such downbeat fare. Crane's story does fascinate in a train-wreck sort of way. But the picture leaves one with a slightly sick, unclean feeling -- a feeling that Taxi Driver and his underrated, brilliant Affliction never did.
Crane first came to public attention with a morning drive-time radio show in Los Angeles in the late '50s, on which he played drums, goofed around with sound effects and conducted celebrity interviews. My own memory of that show includes an occasional editorial swipe at "risque" Hollywood movies. Hard to believe what followed.
Kinnear's Crane adopts an eager-to-please personality as a means to win friends and influence the right people to advance in show business. He lands the lead in the TV series Hogan's Heroes in 1965, quickly becoming a household name. The movie, written by Michael Gerbosi from Robert Graysmith's book "The Murder of Bob Crane," insists that fame doesn't go to his head; rather he develops an unhealthy palship with an electronic and photography whiz named John Carpenter (Dafoe).
John is on the cutting edge of early videography. Soon Crane not only has prototypical video equipment in his living room, he accompanies his new friend to Hollywood strip clubs to play the drums. Slowly but inexorably Crane gets drawn into the pre-AIDS netherworld of strippers, promiscuous sex and the kinkiness of recording his own sexual escapades. Not even divorce from his first wife (Rita Wilson) and marriage to a second (Maria Bello) slows him down. These obsessions rule his life and damage his career until he decides to go cold turkey -- which means breaking off his friendship with John. The next morning he is found bludgeoned to death in a motel room. Most evidence points to John as the killer, but he is never convicted.
Schrader and cinematographer Fred Murphy visually depict this downward spiral by opening the film with bright, cheery, saturated colors, then gradually shifting to monochromatic, desaturated tones that mirror the home videos Crane so loves. But Crane's emotional breakdown is not so easily charted.
Crane's is an unexamined life. When he does put the brakes to his obsessions, t his stems not from any moral or spiritual epiphany but simply a wise career move. He is forever Hogan, a smart, snappy guy with a crooked smile that makes sexual conquest easy.
Schrader never examines the two men's relationship in any fundamental way -- not their sexual identity, their emotional makeup nor the factors that bind them together.
The period details do work well. They remind us of an era when the Playboy philosophy was taken seriously and a life of sexual pursuit was seen as a kind of freedom rather than a kind of enslavement. It is here the cautionary tale works best, as an example of what happens when one realizes the wrong dream.
AUTO FOCUS
Sony Pictures Classics
Focus Puller Inc.
Credits:
Director: Paul Schrader
Writer: Michael Gerbosi
Based on the book "The Murder of Bob Crane" by: Robert Graysmith
Producers: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Todd Rosken, Pat Dollard
Executive producers: Trevor Macy, Rick Hess, James Schamus
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: James Chinlund
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Kristina Boden
Cast:
Bob Crane: Greg Kinnear
John Carpenter: Willem Dafoe
Anne Crane: Rita Wilson
Patricia Crane: Maria Bello
Lenny: Rob Leibman
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
This time it's the story of actor and radio personality Bob Crane, whose hidden gene caused him to become addicted to sex and pornography, leading him into a murky world that ended with his murder in 1978.
Despite all of Schrader's films delving into this theme, the director's focus on this troubled character remains peculiarly fuzzy. Schrader seemingly has no point of view about Crane. We watch a life fall apart as one could observe an organism under a microscope -- with neither passion nor compassion. It comes awfully close to an exercise in morbidity.
Sony Pictures Classics will need all of Schrader's marquee power along with that of stars Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe to draw the curious to such downbeat fare. Crane's story does fascinate in a train-wreck sort of way. But the picture leaves one with a slightly sick, unclean feeling -- a feeling that Taxi Driver and his underrated, brilliant Affliction never did.
Crane first came to public attention with a morning drive-time radio show in Los Angeles in the late '50s, on which he played drums, goofed around with sound effects and conducted celebrity interviews. My own memory of that show includes an occasional editorial swipe at "risque" Hollywood movies. Hard to believe what followed.
Kinnear's Crane adopts an eager-to-please personality as a means to win friends and influence the right people to advance in show business. He lands the lead in the TV series Hogan's Heroes in 1965, quickly becoming a household name. The movie, written by Michael Gerbosi from Robert Graysmith's book "The Murder of Bob Crane," insists that fame doesn't go to his head; rather he develops an unhealthy palship with an electronic and photography whiz named John Carpenter (Dafoe).
John is on the cutting edge of early videography. Soon Crane not only has prototypical video equipment in his living room, he accompanies his new friend to Hollywood strip clubs to play the drums. Slowly but inexorably Crane gets drawn into the pre-AIDS netherworld of strippers, promiscuous sex and the kinkiness of recording his own sexual escapades. Not even divorce from his first wife (Rita Wilson) and marriage to a second (Maria Bello) slows him down. These obsessions rule his life and damage his career until he decides to go cold turkey -- which means breaking off his friendship with John. The next morning he is found bludgeoned to death in a motel room. Most evidence points to John as the killer, but he is never convicted.
Schrader and cinematographer Fred Murphy visually depict this downward spiral by opening the film with bright, cheery, saturated colors, then gradually shifting to monochromatic, desaturated tones that mirror the home videos Crane so loves. But Crane's emotional breakdown is not so easily charted.
Crane's is an unexamined life. When he does put the brakes to his obsessions, t his stems not from any moral or spiritual epiphany but simply a wise career move. He is forever Hogan, a smart, snappy guy with a crooked smile that makes sexual conquest easy.
Schrader never examines the two men's relationship in any fundamental way -- not their sexual identity, their emotional makeup nor the factors that bind them together.
The period details do work well. They remind us of an era when the Playboy philosophy was taken seriously and a life of sexual pursuit was seen as a kind of freedom rather than a kind of enslavement. It is here the cautionary tale works best, as an example of what happens when one realizes the wrong dream.
AUTO FOCUS
Sony Pictures Classics
Focus Puller Inc.
Credits:
Director: Paul Schrader
Writer: Michael Gerbosi
Based on the book "The Murder of Bob Crane" by: Robert Graysmith
Producers: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Todd Rosken, Pat Dollard
Executive producers: Trevor Macy, Rick Hess, James Schamus
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: James Chinlund
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Kristina Boden
Cast:
Bob Crane: Greg Kinnear
John Carpenter: Willem Dafoe
Anne Crane: Rita Wilson
Patricia Crane: Maria Bello
Lenny: Rob Leibman
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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.