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Auto Focus (2002)

Director: Paul Schrader

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From Time Out Film Guide

Improvident sexaholic Bob Crane (Kinnear) came to fame as the star of the '60s TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes, and died, brutally and mysteriously, in a motel room in 1978. Co-produced by the writers of The People vs. Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon, Schrader's film proposes that, in between, Crane's life was one long pile-up of party girls and home pornography, catalysed by his friendship with home-video evangelist 'John Carpenter' (Dafoe). The twist to the tale is the self-image Crane maintains as a straight-up, all-American kind of guy, justifying his playboy lifestyle to anyone who'll listen, even as it devours two marriages and his cherished (if vacuous) 'likeability'. Until some shaky stylisation at the close, Schrader sets up all this with uninflected matter-of-factness, offering Crane as a glib, mildly ridiculous enigma. The result is curiously flat, begging questions. (From the book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith.

Author: NB 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Paul Schrader

Producer: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Todd Rosken, Pat Dollard, Alicia Allain

Cast: Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Rita Wilson, Kurt Fuller, Maria Bello, Ron Leibman, Ed Begley Jr, Michael Rodgers, Michael McKean full cast

Duration: 105 mins


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