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Hounddog (2007)

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Average Rating: 3.6/10
Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 45

Despite a noble effort from Dakota Fanning, Hounddog is overwrought, cliche-ridden and downright exploitative.

Average Rating: 3.5/10
Critic Reviews: 20
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 16

Despite a noble effort from Dakota Fanning, Hounddog is overwrought, cliche-ridden and downright exploitative.

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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 14,876

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Movie Info

A precocious but troubled young girl living in 1950s-era Alabama seeks solace in the music of Elvis Presley in director Deborah Kampmeier's controversial tale of childhood trauma and musical healing. An air of repression lingers over the home of spirited youngster Lewellen (Dakota Fanning), who finds both comfort in the music of pop sensation Presley, as well as a place to store her pain and anger. In time Lewellen begins to find her own voice, a voice that will instill her with the strength to

R, 1 hr. 42 min.

Musical & Performing Arts, Drama

Directed By: Deborah Kampmeier

Written By: Deborah Kampmeier

In Theaters: Sep 19, 2008 Wide

On DVD: Mar 10, 2009

Empire Film Group

The whole distasteful mess is sunk up to its neck in a brew of Southern Gothic atmosphere and hocus-pocus sentimentality.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

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Steven Winn

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Only Fanning's emotional honesty makes Hounddog watchable.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune

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Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

If there's a Southern-gothic clich� (oh, those snakes!) that writer-director Deborah Kampmeier misses, I don't know it.

September 26, 2008 Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

A slow procession of degradation and suffering, Hounddog is like a tall glass of bitter iced tea.

September 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

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David Hiltbrand

Philadelphia Inquirer

Top Critic

The latest wallow in regional cliche and stereotype.

September 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger

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Stephen Whitty

Newark Star-Ledger

Top Critic

The clich�s are thick as the kudzu in 1956 Alabama.

September 19, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Post

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Lou Lumenick

New York Post

Top Critic

An ill-advised variation on Black Snake Moan touting loss of innocence as a source of inspiration.

February 19, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

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Kam Williams

NewsBlaze

While the sexualization on screen of a twelve year old actress is dismissed by the filmmaker and some anti-rape organizations because it's intended to focus on a grave crime, one hand washing the other is not the point.

January 31, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

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Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

Hounddog boasts a distinctive wood-and-emerald look and several crackerjack performances.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun

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Michael Sragow

Baltimore Sun

...as discomfiting as you've heard, yet there is one moment near the end that nearly saves it.

October 8, 2008 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm

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Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

Fanning resembles an acting robot: stick a quarter in her head and she'll dial up any reaction in the book, absent the needed gravitas.

October 2, 2008 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com

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Brian Orndorf

BrianOrndorf.com

We're seeing Fanning in soaking wet white underwear playing in the river, gyrating like Elvis. That's worse that an exploitative rape scene. This is just the filmmakers deciding to depict salacious behavior.

September 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Can Magazine

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Fred Topel

Can Magazine

It's hard to take this wild mixture of sledgehammer symbolism, period Southern Gothic, race-conscious uplift and cautionary coming-of-age parable seriously, despite Fanning's remarkable poise.

September 24, 2008 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion

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Frank Swietek

One Guy's Opinion

The only lesson is that if you're a child of the south, you better get yourself adopted by Yankees.

September 19, 2008 Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly

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Amy Nicholson

I.E. Weekly

A handsomely produced but unintentionally risible film that mistakes high grotesquerie for high gothic.

September 19, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

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Ken Fox

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Kampmeier takes everything from the Flannery O'Connor school of Southern Gothic, tosses in cringe-worthy dialogue, and throws in not one but two horrible archetypes for good measure.

September 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine

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Jennifer Miller

Premiere Magazine

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Audience Reviews for Hounddog

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Dakota Fanning's luminescent performance grounds this lonely, sordid trip to the rural 1950s South enough to overcome the numerous and cliched stereotypes in this dark tale of a poor country girl innocently obsessed with Elvis.

April 5, 2012

moon rivers

Super Reviewer

A young girl grows up in the South with her damaged father, dysfunctional grandmother, and a looming sexuality.I think this film gets a star knocked off as a penalty for its disappointment. I like Dakota Fanning in her dramatic roles more than her saccharine family comedies, and David Morse is always extraordinary.

October 8, 2011

Jim Hunter

Super Reviewer

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