WhatzUp

Auto Focus
by Derek Neff

Auto Focus tells the real-life story of actor Bob Crane, star of TV’s “Hogan’s Heroes” and describes Crane’s downward spiral into sex addiction, homemade porn movies, murder and even (gasp) dinner theater. The movie opens with Crane (played here by Greg Kinnear, who shares the same polished good looks and smooth, snappy delivery that Crane possessed) getting offered the lead in a new sitcom about, improbably enough, a German P.O.W. camp in WWII. Initially, Crane appears to be a workaholic, a more or less devoted Catholic and a dedicated (if often absent) husband and father.

After “Hogan’s Heroes” becomes a moderate success, Crane spends less and less time at home and more and more time at small “parties” with a friend named John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) at which they tape themselves having sex with various women. Carpenter, or “Carpie” as his friends call him, sees himself as a swinger and an expert in cutting-edge technology. I didn’t realize that videotape was around in any form as far back as the mid-60s, but for the affluent it apparently was, and if you wanted to brag about being the first guy on your block with a massive box-shaped videocamera wired into a huge recording device, Carpie was the guy you went to.

Written and directed by Paul Schrader (who penned, among other movies, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), Auto Focus is never boring, often shocking and consistently compelling. But if you haven’t guessed already, the movie’s protagonist is utterly unsympathetic throughout. Crane hopped onto the free love train of the 60s only to get some action, not because he shared any of the same sentiments with the flower generation. A womanizer of the old school, he used the hippie lingo and wore the groovy clothes, but only uncomfortably. (At one point, during an orgy in which Carpie experimentally fondles Crane, Crane nearly goes through the roof.)

Crane is portrayed as jittery, tacky, secretive, obsessed and of questionable talent. Auto Focus is not the kind of biopic that’s likely to make any new fans for Crane, but it might make new fans for filmmaker Schrader.