Hounddog – known since its Sundance debut as the movie in which a sexualized little Dakota Fanning is raped – is as discomfiting as you’ve heard, yet there is one moment near the end that nearly saves it. Fanning’s Lewellen is an Elvis fanatic who lives in rural Alabama in the 1950s. Her family is a wreck, leaving a kindly nearby farmhand named Charles (Afemo Omilami) who plays the blues with his buddies in the barn as her only confidant. A few days after being attacked, Lewellen joins one of Charles’ jam sessions, where he encourages her to sing “Hounddog” as a way of exorcising her demons. Fanning’s rendition – as powerful a definition of the blues as I’ve ever seen – is an astounding scene, in which this damaged girl, for a moment, regains her spirit and innocence. The question, of course, is whether it makes up for the movie’s previous ickiness. From writer-director Deborah Kampmeier.
