50 Movie Challenge, Auto Focus
8. Auto Focus. 2002. Directed by Paul Schrader. A biopic of Bob Crane, star of Hogan’s Heroes. Greg Kinnear plays Crane, who leveraged his likeable, charismatic screen persona to fuel an ever-more-seedy sex addiction, central to which was a need to capture his encounters, first on film and later on the emerging technology of videotape. He was aided in his recording fetish by a friend, played with credible creepiness by Willem Dafoe. The movie deftly shows how Crane became what he did, making stupid choices and alienating everyone in his life. The drawn out descent to his strangulation in a hotel room, though, plays like every addiction story, ever, so the end is not only depressing, but it also feels flat.
March 17th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
SO depressing. made me feel dirty. in a bad way.
and really made me wish i’d had a crush on Lebeau like my cousin did.
March 19th, 2005 at 10:18 am
One of of things I appreciated about Auto Focus was the portrayal of Richard Dawson as both a womanizer and kind of a sleazy creep, jealous of Crane because the latter got the part of Hogan instead of Dawson. I remember Dawson as the funny, greying man on Match Game, who seemed to me a paternal guy. It was odd to see him cast in such a different light.