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Auto Focus (2002)
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Reviews Counted: 155
Fresh: 112
Rotten:43
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Consensus: Kinnear and Dafoe help make this downward spiral of one man's life a compelling watch.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexuality, nudity, language, some drug use and violence
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release: Oct 18, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $1,818,622
Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Rita Wilson, Maria Bello
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Rita Wilson, Maria Bello, Ron Leibman, Bruce Solomon, Kurt Fuller, Michael Rodgers
Director: Paul Schrader
Director: Paul Schrader
Screenwriter: Trevor Macy, Michael Gerbosi
Producer: Todd Rosken
Composer: Angelo Badalementi
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Get This Movie
Release:
Mar 18, 2003
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
Reviews for Auto Focus
Sempre fascinante, o filme traz Greg Kinnear e Willem Dafoe em performances absolutamente impecáveis.
See it for Kinnear's performance, see it for a supreme depiction of the time, but don't go in expecting Citizen Kane. More like Deep Throat.
Another probing case history of male pathology from one of the most consistently interesting American film-makers alive.
Crane's story is a modern Hollywood tragedy, and Schrader and Kinnear treat it with the utmost respect, creating a film that is both touching and bittersweet.
..interesting for the way it reveals what the advent of the videotape in the '70s has done to all of us. Like the Internet in the '90s, it has helped make what's private public – for better or worse.
Auto Focus is a tense and gripping film, filled with surprises and overt contradictions of the human condition. It’s also a terrifying look at a man who loses his sense of himself and is caught in his own net of deceit as he self destructs.
Schrader weaves American sexual mores, advances in video technology, dangerous impulses and awareness of self into one compelling thread. The movie has a precise vision — funny, sad and profound all at once.
It's a compelling watch, but moves no further than being an exploratory film about Crane's demise due to his sex addiction.
This is not a masterpiece; Schrader wrote a better film about career disintegration and the pathetic sexual lives of insecure men, and that film was "Raging Bull". But the movie is powerful.
Latest News for Auto Focus
November 17, 2005:
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December 09, 2004:
Schrader's Shelved Exorcist Sequel to See Limited Release in '05
Moviehole chimes in with an exclusive scoop update on Paul Schrader's version of "Exorcist: The Beginning": "Why isn't Paul Schrader's cut of "The Exorcist:... More...
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