Movie Description
AUTO FOCUS is the story of Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), who was the star of the television series HOGAN'S HEROES in the 1960s. Before he achieved that particular fame, Crane was a popular radio talk show host in Hollywood. His television work brought him a level of visibility and notoriety that he turned directly into sexual opportunity. Gallivanting with sleazy audiovisual salesman John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), Crane built a life as a desperately addicted sex maniac. As the first home video cameras were invented, Carpenter and Crane began a prolific hobby of coercing girls to appear on tape while engaging in lewd sexual acts. The more intensely obsessed Crane became with his habit, the less his acting career mattered. He divorced his wife, allowing her custody of their two children, and remarried, having another son, only to divorce again. Meanwhile, his relentless sexual exploits became increasingly impersonal and mean-spirited. His public image suffered as he shamelessly made tasteless, sexualized remarks and got a reputation for openly displaying photographs of himself receiving oral sex. Paul Schrader's powerful, deeply effective, and darkly disturbing film makes a 180-degree transition as its story rolls out. What begins as a happy, colorful, naive portrayal of the entertainment industry becomes the nightmare of one man's disintegration in the face of temptation, money, and power.
| Credits | | Producer: | Todd Rosken | | Cast: | Greg Kinnear, Maria Bello, Rita Wilson |
| Details | | Sound: | Stereo Sound |
Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe - Stars
2. Paul Schrader - Director
3. Producers and Writers
Trailers
Featurette - 1. MURDER IN SCOTTSDALE
2. Making-Of
Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary (5)
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Selection
DVD-Rom Features:
Weblink, Theatrical Release: OCTOBER 18, 2002 (NY/LA)
Editorial Reviews
"...[Kinnear] makes the character's reckless downhill slide into a mesmerizing spectacle..."
Movieline - Stephen Farber (10/01/2002)
"...Scathing and inventively warped..."
Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum (09/27/2002)
"...An astute account of the downward life spiral of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane....It ranks as a shrewd expose of recent Hollywood's slimy underside..."
Variety - Todd McCarthy (09/09/2002)
"...Strangely wonderful and weirdly touching..."
Los Angeles Times - Manohla Dargis (10/18/2002)
"...Michael Gerbosi's script is economically packed with telling scenes..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (10/18/2002)
"...A splendidly taut example of the genre....An exemplary Shrader work, a painfully funny and misanthropic treatise on American masculinity and its sexualised image..."
Sight and Sound - Linda Ruth Williams (03/01/2003)
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