Sundance. Hounddog.

"Hounddog is an indigestible gumbo of Southern Gothic ingredients seasoned with snake oil, Biblical hash, and thoroughly unpalatable spice," growls Variety's Todd McCarthy. "Deborah Kampmeier's second feature became notorious even before its premiere as the 'Dakota Fanning rape movie.' The problem, however, is not that pivotal scene, which is as tastefully handled as it could be under the circumstances, but the fact that, after a reasonably atmospheric, if uneventful, first hour, the picture subsequently runs right off the rails."

Updated through 1/25.

"[W]hat kept me interested throughout was Fanning's unbelievable performance," writes Jason Guerrasio for Filmmaker. Otherwise, he's underwhelmed, but: "Whether she's singing Elvis, being the object of affection to all the neighborhood boys or struggling with her dysfunctional life she captivates the screen. Unfortunately most will be interested in the film's 'controversy' before the talent put into it."

"Dakota Fanning got sold a bill of goods," writes Annie Frisbie at Zoom In Online. Hounddog "gives her yet another opportunity to prove how frighteningly talented she is, but the movie is an absolute disaster from start to finish."

"[D]eeply moving," submits Grib to AICN. "[T]he real reason to see Hounddog is Fanning. She does things in this film that would challenge an actress twice her age."

Torie Bosch explains to Slate readers why Hounddog is not, in fact, kiddie porn: "[F]or the film to run afoul of the law, an average viewer would have to think that Dakota Fanning really did engage in sexual intercourse on the set during production." Click back to Jason Guerrasio's entry to see why you'd have to have severe reality displacement issues to think so.

Robin Abcarian had a backgrounder in the Los Angeles Times a few days before the premiere: "'I have to say I have started to feel very sorry for these people who are out to silence this,' said Kampmeier, who wrote, produced and directed the film. 'These are really wounded people, just like the characters in the film.'"

Updates: Mike D'Angelo at ScreenGrab: "If nothing else, the film will lay to rest any doubts about whether Fanning is genuinely gifted or merely precocious - her character as written may be little more than a fanciful construct, but she tackles each suspect emotion with unshakable conviction. Alas, she's trapped in a movie that seems unaware that wise Negro stablehands and drooling Faulknerian man-children have gone out of style for a very good reason."

Eric Kohn for the New York Press: "Hounddog is one of those movies that makes people who love the medium join together in the name of creative integrity and wage war against the vacuous monstrosity that threatens to malign their favorite art form."

Slate seems to have taken a particular interest in this movie. Particularly which, I'm not sure, but here's Meghan O'Rourke: "Dakota Fanning has been making dark and creepy movies for years. Over her seven-year career, she has become a small, blond embodiment of America's fond hope that scarred children can be restored to childish innocence. It was only a matter of time before the trauma she faced would be rape."

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir: "Sundance 2007 finally has a bomb. Every festival needs one.... [I]t turns out the defenders of my ancestral faith are correct, if only by accident: Hounddog should be boycotted. Not because it depicts the sexual exploitation of children but because it's a turgid, overripe mess."

Updates, 1/25: It's the Showgirls of Sundance, suggests Steve Ramos at indieWIRE. Not a bad thing: "I think it speaks to a fantastic theatrical future akin to a John Waters movie."

Cinematical's Kim Voynar joins the chorus: Fanning, good; movie, bad.

Coverage of the coverage: The Park City Index.

Posted by dwhudson at January 24, 2007 1:38 AM