After wake Paul Schrader\'s fantastic new film Auto Focus, I felt so dirty that I needed to rush home and take a shower. Spell this movie\'s main character is Hogan\'s Heroes star topology Bob Crane (beautifully played by an energetic Greg Kinnear), Car Focus is a plastic film about dependance. So while you whitethorn not leave this picture show feeling you know more about Stephen Crane the man, you will experience that which dragged this likable TV personality into the depths of destruction. Automobile Focus begins pre-Hogan\'s Heroes as we\'re introduced to loving family man and radio personality Bob Crane. While Harold Hart Crane enjoys his job, he aspires for something greater. Things look up when his agent hooks him up with a screen test for a new sitcom. That sitcom would be Hogan\'s Heroes, and it would change his life incessantly. Before long, Crane befriends video applied science specialist Saint John Carpenter (played with creepy-crawly glee by Willem Dafoe), and their friendship leads Crane down a way of life of sexual addiction that proves to be fateful in more than ways then one. Saul Schrader is a seasoned pro when it comes to delving into the minds of withdrawn characters (see the brilliant Cab Driver). His take on Crane is extremely interesting because he never chooses to make a villain out of the sitcom star. This is a story about a normal, decent guy who non only waterfall into a deviate lifestyle for no apparent reason, but doesn\'t seem to see anything wrong with it. Schrader isn\'t necessarily interested in telling us why Crane went in this direction, and the truth is, there probably isn\'t a reason. Sometimes, people just now do things because they can. Was he seduced by the power of celebrity? Was he blase with his everyday life? Who knows. Schrader like an expert gives us an sexual and surly glimpse into the world of addiction. Schrader is also a wizard when it comes to recreating scenes from Hogan\'s Heroes. The numerous recreations in this picture are very detailed and more than impressive. As well directed and written as this picture is, Kinnear is also a big key to Machine Focus being as effective as it is. His sheer likability and charisma keep Crane from decorous a repelling, one dimensional parody. This is a fully rough-textured character, and in the end, I felt lamentable for Crane, even though I was fully mindful that all the bad things happening to him, were because of his own doing. Kinnear is able to convey the sympathy factor even when he\'s piquant in all this naughty behavior. Willem Dafoe too soars as the creepy, lonely Carpenter. In the early goings on, he appears to be the devil preeminent a helpless Crane down a self destructive way, but in the end, he\'s nix more then a sad, lonely soul, who has to sponge onto others to feel important. And through it all, Crane and Carpenter were rightful friends in every sense of the word. The supporting cast is too stellar; featuring fantastic work from Maria Bello, Rita Wilson, Ron Liebman, Michael Rodgers, Kurt Fuller, and Bruce Solomon. Auto Focus is depressing, grim, and provocative. It\'s also very funny, fifty-fifty if it\'s subject matter is null to laugh at. Schrader, Kinnear, and Dafoe deliver made an extremely effective tale about an odd, volatile friendly relationship and a life neutering addiction. This is one of the year\'s best films.
