Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Cedric_Catsuits Reading some of the reviews here, and elsewhere, it is clear that the reviewers haven't actually seen this film - unless there are lots of different versions out there. They didn't see the film I did, for sure. There is no gratuitous or graphic violence or sex, and the only bit of nudity comes courtesy of David Morse's behind. If anything, a little more sex or violence might have enabled more of today's jaded audience to actually get the point of this movie.As I understand it, the story they are trying to tell (in my opinion, unsuccessfully but more of that later) is of an adolescent girl who over a short period of time, due to a sequence of unfortunate events, goes from expressing herself through the voice of Elvis, to eventually being able to express her true self with her own voice, with help from Charles (Afemo Omilami).As a story it holds water, is certainly - unfortunately - true to life and the central role is played with much maturity and sensitivity by Dakota Fanning (bar her mandatory screaming-for-no-reason scene) who may or may not have over-egged her performance (I don't know what was and wasn't said by her) but she is the one carrying this film, and it is not her fault that through clumsy editing and a weak screenplay the story kinda gets lost in the overall dullness.None of the supporting characters are particularly well described and just when we do think we're getting to know them ... cut to a completely different scene. It's almost as if this was a vehicle for a 12-13 year old Dakota Fanning, which is not doing her, her co-stars or the film any favours. It perhaps should have been longer, and less time devoted to the relationship with her father which isn't particularly relevant to the story I think they're trying to tell.My advice is watch it and make up your own mind, but don't expect to be shocked, disgusted, or entertained. The brief glimpses of humour and happiness are lost amongst the monotony of dull sound and scenery. Where's the rock'n'roll, where's the blues? Where are all the characters that surely must have been in the story, in the south, in the 1950s? A worthy attempt to tell a powerful story, but lacking in flair and direction.

jeffreyjets The voter of 7 was mostly for Dakota and her excellent acting. The story was admittedly slow and plot fairly thin, but then it is a Chick Flick, which is all about emotions and relationships, so pace and plot is somewhat irrelevant. The acting was superb all the way around. I saw it based on Dakota being in it. Everyone else's acting was very good from David Morse, Piper Laurie and the Snake Guy. A better Southern Goth tale is Winter's Bone, but like my summary says "If you love Dakota Fanning then it is worthwhile." FYI - I did not hear about all the "controversy" about Dakota's character getting raped. It didn't influence me one way or the other. I have known that this has happened and showing it in context is not inflammatory, although if you were a victim and it still greatly messes with your mind, I don't think seeing it would help.

Robert J. Maxwell I'm not sure but these regionally restricted Southern stories seem to divide themselves into two types. In the first type, we get a series of character sketches, anecdotes without much narrative glue to hold them together. Beth Henley's stories come to mind, and slightly melancholy tales like "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter." In the other category fall stories like "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Streetcar Named Desire", dramas in which events unfold apparently in accordance with some greater cosmic plan."Houndog" has its feet firmly planted in Type Number One. We are witness to Dakota Fanning's tragedies and triumphs as the bony but spirited preadolescent grows up in rural Southern poverty. What sustains her through loss, betrayal, and rape is her love for the music of Elvis Presley -- "Houndog" in particular.Southerners, like New York Jews, may be among our best story tellers. Both groups are still somewhat marginal, though much less so, and have a sharp eye for small characterological details. And they have a way with words.When writers come up with a tale like "Houndog" it's sometimes possible to feel that you're watching, not so much a movie with a plot, but a cinematic tribal study. You get to know what they eat and how they prepare it, what they wear, what's in their back yards, what they consider normal and what's slightly bizarro. You see the houses they live in, mostly dilapidated shacks. You see the muddy but refreshing swimming hole. And in this film you get to see a lot of the snakes they have to contend with. (I think the snakes may "stand for" something but I don't know exactly what.) The snake before the opening credits is probably a rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta quadrivittata). The one that Fanning picks up by the cornfield looks like a southern hognose snake (Heterodon simus) but I wouldn't bet the turnip patch on it. At one point, the stereotypical avuncular black man skins a rattler preparatory to eating it but the skin he hangs up to dry looks like that of a southern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix).Sorry about all the snake stuff but they figure prominently in the movie and I found my mind dwelling on them during some of the story's longueurs.Dakota Fanning is quite a skilled little actress. She's got the character of the tomboyish kid down pat. And despite her little-girl figure she's careless about modesty, always running around in a loose dress, recklessly but innocently showing the crotch of her underpants to a pimply older adolescent, who finally violates her.Piper Laurie is good too. She's a lumpy, slow-moving, grandmother here, overwhelmed by her own piety. I wonder if she found it ironic that she once played Elvis Presley's girl friend in a 1950s movie.David Morse, as Fanning's daddy, is saddled with a role no one should have to play -- a self-indulgent slob who shacks up with women he brings home. Well, he pays for his sins. Of course, we ALL pay for our sins but his premium is especially colorful. He's out in the field on his tractor during a thunderstorm. The machine is struck by lightning and Morse is lifted bodily out of the seat, twirled around in the air like a doll being flung, and turned into a good-natured zombie with the intelligence quotient of a long-leaf pine tree. He wanders around naked while the bad guys in the pool room jab him in the belly with their cue sticks and whack his toes. At the end, he gets bit by a rattler too. I'm telling you, the guy pays for his sins.The fact is, though, that none of the acting falls short of being really good. But, alas, the script can't avoid its clichés. That black guy who gives such good advice and knows how to treat puncture wound and venomous snake bites. He even has a hypodermic syringe and, apparently, some anti-venom on hand. The victim he treats recovers far too quickly. At some point her pretty leg would look like a Smithfield ham. And the scene in which Fanning, after her rape and a period of illness and mutism, rediscovers her strength through singing "Houndog" at the black guy's urging, reaching "deep into yo' self" and singing it now not as an imitation of Elvis but in her own style. Okay, we get the message, but the camera lingers too long on Fanning's suffering features. At this point, the director rushes in from off screen holding a cue card that reads: "Cry." There are only two "good people" in the movie: Uncle Tom and a compassionate woman we hardly get to know. It's getting a little tiresome seeing young girls beaten down by men and religion without ever being defeated. I've kind of poked fun at it but I watched it with interest from beginning to end, even as I managed to avoid the more obvious attempts at manipulation. It's by no means a "bad" or insulting movie and there's a lot of talent on display.

thinker1691 In the hidden recesses of the South, there are many tragic stories which emerge about how brutal life is. Often such stories can make it to the big screen and illustrate how difficult it is to put it on film. 'Bastard out of Carolina' and 'Betrayed' are but two examples. Here is another which was purportedly so shocking few would be able to finish it. The movie is called " Hounddog " and relates the early life of a little girl named Lewellen (Dakota Fanning) who lives in a shabby, ram shackled house with her itinerant, slightly retarded father, (David Morse) who is scratching out a modest living as a farmer. Helping to raise Lewellen is "Grammie" (Piper Laurie) her Grandmother, a strict, overbearing and often religiously intolerant relative who keeps the family secrets and indiscretion records of all the "Sins" committed by the family. Lewellen has one close friend named 'Buddy' (Cody Hanford) whom she trusts and shares what little happiness there is in her life. Lewellen has one overpowering ambition and that is to imitate her idol, Elvis Presley (Ryan Pelton). To this end, she will do anything to see him in a live concert. So driven is she to her quest, she allows herself to be tricked and raped. The controversial scene is almost non-existent and nothing if transient. The editing, dialog, directing and script are poor and few scenes are given much depth. So much so, one concludes the story and it's integral film parts are juvenile, haphazard and often amateurish at best. One aspect of the movie should be noted and that is Lewellen's friendship with the neighboring black character called Charles (Afemo Omilami) who offers understanding, comfort, sage advice and medicinal education concerning snakes and the intention of enemies. The movie has gained little accolades aside from the controversy. In short, the movie is interesting, but little which will propel audiences to remember it. **