See it or Skip it: Hounddog

Hounddog, also known as the infamous “Dakota Fanning rape movie,” has been desperately seeking distribution since its debut at Sundance in 2007. For some unfathomable reason, the film will finally have a limited release in theaters September 5th when, audiences will discover, Fanning’s sexual assault is just one part of a thoroughly offensive trip to the movies.

Hounddog stars Fanning as Lewellen, an Elvis obsessed 12-year-old in 1950’s Alabama, trapped between her abusive father, David Morse (who turns in a performance reminiscent of Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder), her absentee mother, Robin Wright Penn who also executive produced the film, and her God-fearing grandmother, Piper Laurie.

Deborah Kampmeier fails as both writer and director. Her script is horrible, preferring big thuds of character and plodding plot points you can see a mile away to a real story. Filled with mallet-handed symbolism that bashes the audience over the head and laughably bad overacting, Hounddog has the pretense of being about shattered innocence (there are constant Adam and Eve references) but it’s more like a sub-par Black Snake Moan with a twelve-year-old; exploitive, misguided and almost unwatchable.

Skip it!