Focus
Good news in a nypost.com headline: “Pre-symptom blood test that detects more than 50 cancers rolled out.” Great, but Alzheimer’s and dementia scare me more.
I know many on the right are optimistic about the midterm elections, figuring the left has blown it all by aggressive overreach and the violence plaguing big cities, but voters almost always vote their pocketbooks, and the economy is rising and the stock markets continue to make all-time highs. Soon, those who are taking advantage of unemployment benefits will have to return to work. The biggest potential wrench in the left’s plans, economically, is inflation. Displeasure with that may make the social issues seem to centrists as dire as they appear to those on the right. Still a long way to November 2022. So much will happen.
Typical “Do as I say…” politician, headline from foxnews.com: “UK health minister resigns after being caught kissing staffer and violating COVID-19 guidelines.”
Fauci seems more villainous by the minute. The email revelations are stunning. And I thought he was simply a hapless bureaucrat. He may be an archvillain.
I’m not sure why I waited so long to view Auto Focus (2002), which I caught up to last night courtesy of Netflix by mail. It certainly wasn’t because of its salacious content. My guess is I was probably put off by the fact that Bob Crane’s murder has never been solved, although it is believed the perpetrator was his playing partner, now deceased. That was a silly reason, as it occurs in the last minute and there’s lots of story before it. Crane didn’t drink or smoke, but he succumbed to the temptation readily available to a star. Given how society has evolved, porn now mainstream, it can be argued that he was in the vanguard of the sexual revolution. Greg Kinnear is excellent in the lead, and Willem Dafoe seems a natural in the role of the man who welcomes Crane into the lifestyle. Rita Wilson (Mrs. Tom Hanks), Maria Bello, Michael McKean, Ed Begley Jr., Ron Liebman, Kurt Fuller and Joe Grifasi lend their considerable talents in support. Scotland’s Michael E. Rodgers plays Richard Dawson, who does not come off well. Although the movie runs only 1:45, it gets tedious, just as porn does to all but the addicted. Anyone squeamish about sexual content should pass. There is nudity, of course, and frank language. The film was directed by Paul Schrader, who has written such hardboiled fare as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and the adaptations of Paul Theroux’s novel The Mosquito Coast (1986) and Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Michael Gerbosi adapted the screenplay of Auto Focus from Robert Graysmith’s book. He has only three writing credits at IMDb, the first in 1955 — Andy’s Gang, the children series fronted by Andy Devine! That tidbit had me LOL. He also worked as a production assistant on 16 episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I was unable to find any info on how else he earned a living. Auto Focus faired miserably at the box office, returning two million against a budget of nine million. I’m sure DVD sales and rentals and streaming closed that gap significantly. I’d guess that the availability of porn eliminated a big chunk of its potential theater audience. And the fact that Crane was so admired probably turned off those who didn’t want their positive image of him diminished. 13,000+ users at IMDb have rated Auto Focus, forging to a consensus of 6.6 on a scale of ten. I’d go a bit lower. Here are Dafoe and Kinnear in character, watching one of their homemade tapes:
Bob Crane was killed at 49 in 1978. He had phenomenal success. There are 32 titles under his name at IMDb, but that sparse total doesn’t begin to tell his story. He was in 63 episodes alone of The Donna Reed Show and 168 of Hogan’s Heroes. He also was the number one morning radio personality in southern California before hitting it big on his own TV show. He struggled after its run ended, both personally and financially. An eponymous 1967 series was cancelled after 14 episodes. Twice married, he is the father of five.
Two light showers took the fun out of today’s session of the floating book shop. My thanks to the woman who bought three books in Russian, and to Monse`, who purchased Finding Neverland (2004) on DVD; and to the two women who combined to buy five kids books; and to Mr. Conspiracy, aka Steve, who selected Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku, whom Steve once met; and to the woman who chose Dangerous Kiss by Jackie Collins; and to the gentleman who did a two-for-one swap of Russian books.
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