Auto Focus

2002 Drama

The life and sordid, untimely death of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane are explored by director Paul Schrader in this biopic, which marks one of the few times the filmmaker has not scripted his own film. Auto Focus chronologically traces the meteoric rise of Crane's show business career, beginning with his early success as a jokey deejay on Los Angeles morning radio in the early '60s. A devout family man, Crane lives in Southern Californian comfort with his wife Anne (Rita Wilson) and their young children, relishing the modicum of celebrity his job provides him. His life begins to change, however, when his agent Lenny (Ron Leibman) proposes that he take a breakthrough role on the CBS POW-camp sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Initially reluctant to take the job, Crane signs on with the production and, to his and everyone else's surprise, the show becomes a smash hit. With celebrity comes a new set of friends, and Crane falls in with audio-visual guru John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), a Sony sales rep who spends his days setting up home entertainment systems for the Hollywood elite, and his nights cruising strip clubs for anonymous sexual encounters. Already a pornography buff, Crane starts using his fame to secure him and Carpenter an endless parade of affairs, which they videotape and then obsessively review. It isn't long before Anne demands a divorce, and Crane marries his Hogan's co-star Patti Olsen (aka Sigrid Valdis, here played by Maria Bello), who's more accepting of his escapades. When the sitcom is canceled, however, Crane has trouble securing acting jobs, and recedes further and further into his life of amateur porn with Carpenter. Auto Focus premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals before its art-house run in the fall of 2002. more..

Director: Paul Schrader

Starring: Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Maria Bello, Rita Wilson, Ron Leibman

Reviews

  • The film is pitch-perfect in its decor, music, clothes, cars, language and values. It takes place during those heady years between the introduction of the Pill and the specter of AIDS, when men shaped as adolescents by Playboy in the 1950s now found some of their fantasies within reach.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    29 November 2012

  • Michael Gerbosi's script might have reduced Crane to a clueless cliche were it not for the bruised humanity that Greg Kinnear brings to the role. Kinnear is dynamite.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    29 November 2012

  • In Auto Focus, the strangely wonderful and weirdly touching new film from Paul Schrader, the comedy and the tragedy keep getting mixed up.

    Manohla Dargis - Los Angeles Times

    29 November 2012

  • In this admirably unconventional film, director Paul Schrader is interested in just about everything BUT traditional biopic business.

    Desson Thomson - The Washington Post

    29 November 2012

  • The performances are vividly alive.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    29 November 2012

Awards

  • Best Supporting Actor

    Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (2003)

     
  • Trashiest

    Golden Trailer Awards (2003)

     
  • Best Actor

    New York Film Critics Circle Awards (2002)

  • Paul Schrader

    San Sebastián International Film Festival (2002)