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This week's reviews: 'Auto Focus,' Santana, 'Girls Club'
(PEOPLE) -- This week, PEOPLE.COM looks at the film "Auto Focus," Santana's "Shaman" and the Fox's "Girls Club." Movie review: 'Auto Focus'
When actor Bob Crane's first wife discovers in his darkroom piles of photos of naked cuties he has snapped, she plaintively asks her husband, "How many women are there?" He can't answer -- he lost count years ago. Crane was the seemingly nice-guy star of the popular sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" (1965-71). While in Arizona on a dinner-theater tour in 1978, he was fatally bludgeoned in his bed, a murder for which no one was ever convicted. After his death, the public learned what many in Hollywood had long known: Crane was a sexaholic who hung out at strip clubs and often videotaped his frolics and even orgies. "Auto Focus," a dark, fascinating film about the corrosive effects of celebrity and ego, zooms in on Crane (Greg Kinnear) with merciless clarity. Kinnear impressively nails the role, getting not only Crane's physical mannerisms but something deeper. He portrays an amoral man who fails to grasp that his promiscuity is ruining his family life and, eventually, his career. When a friend advises him to keep it zipped, Crane says dismissively, "A day without sex is a day wasted." Director Paul Schrader ("Affliction") deftly shows that, in the midst of the sexual revolution, Crane's relentless scaling of the barricades led inevitably to a precipitous fall. In addition to Kinnear, there are first-rate performances by Rita Wilson and Maria Bello as, respectively, Crane's first and second wives, and by Willem Dafoe as a creepy pal who may have been Crane's killer. Bottom line: One sharp picture Music review: 'Shaman'Santana/(Arista) Instead of "Shaman," Carlos Santana's latest should have been called "The Man." Having recruited such pop stars as Dave Matthews, Lauryn Hill, Eric Clapton and Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas to appear on his 1999 comeback album, "Supernatural" -- which won nine Grammys and sold more than 14 million copies -- Santana commands an even glitzier guest list for his follow-up. Macy Gray, Seal, Dido, Musiq, Michelle Branch, P.O.D. and even Plácido Domingo sit in with the guitar god. The result is a sprawling set that, much like "Supernatural," is impressive for its stylistic breadth and sheer musicianship if not for its focus. Santana teams up with 19-year-old Branch for the first single, "The Game of Love," but his adroit, lyrical guitar work doesn't gel with the singsong chorus and Branch's fresh-scrubbed delivery. Much better are his pairings with newcomer Citizen Cope (on the bluesy "Sideways") and with Gray, whose colorful vocals are an inspired addition on the saucy "Amoré (Sexo)." Although he dabbles in everything from R&B and hip-hop to alt-metal and classical, Santana is still best when sticking closer to his Latin-rock roots on tracks such as the soaring instrumental "Victory Is Won," on which, sans any guest vocalist, he simply makes his guitar sing. Bottom line: Star-studded but only semistellar TV review: 'Girls Club'
FOX (Mondays, 9 p.m. ET) "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." That line from an '80s shampoo commercial kept coming back to me as I watched the first two episodes (October 21 and 28) of the latest lawyer show from creator David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "The Practice"). I shouldn't resent Lynne (Gretchen Mol), Sarah (Chyler Leigh) and Jeannie (Kathleen Robertson) for being highly attractive women in their 20s who share a cool San Francisco loft. These Stanford Law School mates are now associates in a high-powered firm where men dominate and the pressure is intense. I know it's tough. Still, something about this slick, verbally proficient drama strikes me as false. Maybe it's those typically outlandish Kelley plot lines: the woman suing her doctor for "gynecological battery" -- which propriety forbids me to explain here -- or the alleged killer whose sexual obsession with counselor Lynne takes him to the end of his tether. Or maybe it's the exaggerated haughtiness of senior partners Nicholas (Giancarlo Esposito) and Meredith (Lisa Banes). I know I wasn't buying that part in the second episode where a sleepless Lynne phones a guy at 2:01 a.m. and says simply, "I need it," prompting him to run right over and service her. If she weren't blessed with beauty, she might have to ask him nicely. "Girls Club" has its strong points, particularly Stacy Keach's juicy guest-star turn as a disgraced ex-congressman in episode 2. But a lot of this material doesn't seem to have come from Kelley's top drawer. Bottom line: Surprisingly unconvincing case
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