justincward PLOT: Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), the charismatic one-time star of hit sitcom 'Hogan's Heroes', used to (early adopter) video himself having sex, with women he met on sleazy theatrical tours. Then his geeky, needy, creepy partner-in-swinging John H. Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) may or may not have bashed his brains in with a camera tripod.CONTEXT: As you'd expect - nay demand from a pr0n-addict film - there's a lot of T'n'A, ie late sixties-style stripping, in Auto Focus. If there weren't, it would be very boring indeed. Many people, celebrities or not, indulge themselves in this sort of thing, so the only thing that makes Bob's story different and not boring is that he met a violent death that officially remains unsolved. His videos were extremely fuzzy, it would appear.SCRIPTING: We've seen the 'washed-up actor pleads with agent' (and he steals it) scene before; we've seen the 'washed-up a*hole has acrimonious divorce' many times. John 'Carp' Carpenter's alleged motivation for smashing Bob's skull is the only character development available, and maybe because they couldn't actually state that John did it explicitly, it's kind of contrived. The movie has no climax (no money shots either).OTHER: The story is weak and melodramatic, but the casting of the Hogan's crew is uncanny. I actually thought it was Werner Klemperer. And the vintage video gear is something to slather over when you're tired of the quasi-hardcore teasers. Is Auto Focus relevant or meaningful in these days of freely available hardcore? It knows who it's talking to, is all.SUMUP: But even pretend explicit sex invariably breaks the fourth wall, and If you're going to break the fourth wall, do it on purpose, not because you're trying to do pretend pr0n. Odd title, too. You can imagine this without seeing it.

nixskits Back when Rob Lowe and Tommy Lee were in grade school, Bob Crane was blazing a self-destructive trail with technical help from his friend, John Carpenter. I didn't grow up with the show "Hogan's Heroes" so seeing this film and reading Robert Graysmith's excellent book "Auto Focus: The Murder of Bob Crane" were eye opening experiences. A gadget man to the stars, John insinuated himself into the lives of Bob and others looking into late 60's audio-video equipment. The beginnings of home video are shown innocently through the kids playing in the Crane house. And then diabolically, with big daddy on the town (and all over America), as the obsessive duo travel on the strip joint and dinner theatre circuits, meeting hundreds of willing women who may or may not have been aware of the full extent of their sex partner's camera oriented games.Eventually, even Bob realizes he's gone too far and wants to change the bounds of his enabler's role in his life. And then it gets deathly dark! If you're aware of this film, you know how it ends. What's disturbing is how we get there. Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe are both awesome in their portrayals of Crane and Carpenter. Two shallow men reached the ends of their ropes and we are left with the sick conclusion that Crane's murderer was probably his "only friend".

jehaccess6 I purchased this DVD because it featured Greg Kinnear in what appeared to be an attractive role. Well, it quickly hit a rough patch when I started to watch. This film has what is arguably the lamest and weakest theme song ever. It equals the efforts of a first-year college film student on his big project.Greg Kinnear did a good job portraying the look and mannerisms of Bob Crane. I could see that Greg spent a lot of time reviewing 'Hogan's Heros' episodes to get this aspect of his character down. He darkened his hair and successfully copied a lot of the familiar Bob Crane facial expressions. His efforts to be a convincing drummer were much weaker. Greg obviously has not the slightest musical ability.The plot of the film followed Bob Crane's plunge to the bottom from his career peak when he was cast for the lead in 'Hogan's Heros'. It became clear that Bob Crane could not handle all that success. He did tolerably well as a moderately-successful DJ and bit-part actor. He had never been the ladies' man of his fantasies and was resigned to being the devoted husband and father. He only occasionally lapsed from rectitude with his stash of porn magazines.Bob Crane's mismanagement of the tremendous wealth he earned from his salary for the lead role on a hit TV series was astounding. This man need never have worked another day in his life. Instead he was nearly broke when his TV show went out of production.The dynamics of the 'Hogan's Heros' cast relationships were somewhat interesting. I don't know how accurately the film portrayed the rancor between Bob Crane and Richard Dawson. It seemed to ring true, since we saw how big an ass Richard could be when he hosted 'Family Feud'.The mutually-destructive relationship between Bob Crane and John Carpenter was so creepy as to make my skin crawl. Carpenter was obviously a closet homosexual getting his gratification filming the sexploits of Crane with a horrid fixation on filming Crane's genitals in action. Crane had to be remarkably dense not to pick up on this motivation of Carpenter.It was so depressing to see how many women were willing to degrade themselves with this toxic duo in order to associate briefly with a minor celebrity. Crane married two women who really loved him. Unfortunately, he was so depraved that he could never be faithful as long as so many other women were available.The movie strongly hinted that John Carpenter murdered Bob Crane. When Crane broke off his relationship with Carpenter, it was like a lover's rejection to Carpenter. He was cut off from his vicarious access to his sexual fixation and the access to women that the pitiful dregs of Crane's fame still afforded.It cannot have been pleasant for Bob Crane's former wives and children for all this dirty laundry to be aired in this film. Perhaps some moral lessons from this film will benefit others with the inclination to follow in Bob Crane's footsteps.Overall, this film was more a moral lesson than entertainment. It wasn't much fun to watch, it was perhaps too realistic for my comfort. I hope Greg Kinnear chooses some more appealing scripts in future.

T Y I've noted my problems with Paul Schrader's films before (too many beautiful compositions, too much arranging the posture of depth without being deep) but this is his biggest embarrassment to date. No one should have given it any rating but "total bomb." I can only hazard a guess that Schrader's Calvinist upbringing, left him with a lifelong obsession with morality and the punishment of sexual transgressions (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, Comfort of Strangers, Mishima, Hardcore, this). All of his movies could be called The Scarlet Letter: Part 11, 12, 13, etc. He wants to show us people boning on film, but figures he can't without the free pass of a simpleton moral message. So this timorous man continually seeks out stories about salacious or tawdry lives. He does it to underscore morality, but after so many of these teasing films, one also gets a clear picture that Schrader is endlessly horny & envious of his subjects. So what's worse; a character-ruining obsession with porn, or a similarly obsessed director leering at these people?This movie is the Hollywood version of an after-school special. It's "Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Drug Abuser" with sexual addiction swapped in as the issue. It's construction is absolutely shallow. Schrader never gets around to anything BUT the moral message. There is nothing else to it. The point is so utterly obvious the movie is craving other activities to enrich it. Kinnear is miscast as are others (Has the actor playing Richard Dawson viewed even a frame of him in action? Bea Arthur is more like Dawson) and one gets the sense that Schrader wants to revisit the era, mood and accolades of Boogie Nights, but he can't orchestrate anything as complex.If I had one wish for Paul Schrader it would be that he'd have mind-blowing, bone-shaking sex without a shred of guilt about a hundred times in the next few months. Maybe then he'd stop pounding viewers over the head about temperance and restraint. He's not developing an oeuvre, he's just beating a dead horse.There probably was an interesting, thoughtful movie to make about Bob Crane. This ain't it. This is the dumbest, most artless film I've seen in about a year. A special pan goes to the graphic designer who came up with the humorous retro 50's DVD menus. I can't think of less fitting or appropriate visuals for this movie. I'm finished now ...but I think we all learned a valuable lesson. (< sarcasm)