Based on The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith, Auto Focus offers a glimpse into the colorful life—and mysterious death—of the handsome and charming star of the hugely successful ’60s-era POW-camp comedy Hogan’s Heroes. After the show’s cancellation, Crane (Greg Kinnear turning in a career-best performance as the troubled actor) desperately fell into the seamy world of sex, strip clubs, and decadence. Eventually he teamed up with video technician John Henry Carpenter (frequent Schrader collaborator, Willem Dafoe) to document his exploits—an association that very well may have led to his violent murder in an Arizona motel room in 1978 where he was bludgeoned with a camera tripod. Almost two decades since its release, Schrader’s adaptation of this true-crime tale—something fit for the pages of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon—still stands as one of the most entertaining and provocative “Dark Side of Hollywood” films ever made.

Presented on 35mm, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics