Auto Focus

A transforming performance by Greg Kinnear is at the heart and soul of this sympathetic but all-warts film biography chronicling infamously sex-addicted Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane's journey from a semi-celebrity family man with a secret stash of dirty magazines to a compulsive home-porn pioneer who used the earliest portable videotape equipment to archive innumerable conquests of star-struck strumpets and call girls. But the main question raised by personality-based bio-pics (as opposed to historical biographies or other films in which the subject accomplished something more than celebrity) is: why are you showing us this? Auto Focus is an adept piece of moviemaking, but Crane was just a one-hit wonder TV star with a library of dirty home movies. Is that really a compelling enough story to justify a feature film? It comes close, with gifted director Paul Schrader at the helm and Willem Dafoe costarring as a volatile swinger and coattail clinger who was Crane's video procurer, partner in sex addiction, and possible murderer (the star was bludgeoned to death in 1978). Still, unless Bob Crane is someone of particular interest to the viewer, the film is unlikely to leave a lasting impression. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include three audio commentaries (by director Paul Schrader, by screenwriter Michael Gerbosi and producers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and by costars Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe), the disturbing two-part documentary “Murder in Scottsdale” (49 min.), a seven-minute making-of featurette, five deleted scenes w/optional director commentary, and trailers. Bottom line: an extensive extras package for a better-than-expected film.] (R. Blackwelder)