Review in the Chicago Trib

Hounddog': A couple years later, it's altered, but still not fixed

The film is responsible, earnest, well-intentioned and, as it was in Sundance, maddeningly inconsistent. As Lewellen, Fanning's very good; she's a genuine actress. But "Hounddog," about a girl in love with Elvis who must learn to sing the blues from her soul before she can make herself whole again, veers from ham-handed biblical symbolism (more snakes and Christ-like images than any one film can accommodate) to sinister Tennessee Williams "Baby Doll"-style black comedy, to uneasy, even risible depictions of how blacks and whites interacted in the Jim Crow South. Under the tutelage of her African-American savior and father figure (Afemo Omilami), whose reminders to "keep feeding the spirit" guide her to health, Lewellen learns to plant her feet, quit swiveling her prepubescent hips for the enjoyment of various predators and sing songs like "Hounddog" the way Big Mama Thornton sings them: born of real pain and suffering.

Hmmm.

It seems that David Morse ( who plays her father,) can't seem to escape roles in "teens threatened by a predator" movies. Down in the Valley and now this.

Further, anyone who has seen the previews for Dakota's next movie, The Secret Life of Bees knows that its another one in which a Southern girl reconnects to her soul only through the intervention of Black people.

Is there anyone else out there who thinks that it does a disservice to African-Americans that Hollywood seems to use Black characters to validate the emotions or spiritual development of White folks? While ostensibly positive, it reduces a people to a one-note cliche; and places them on a pedestal so that it can respect the pedestal, not the person.

While Hollywood continues to incrementally improve; there are unfortunately just as many actors willing to take roles which insincerely praise their people as there are actors who will take roles derogatory to their people.

( Though I look forward to a day in which the obligatory Hollywood "Pedophile" character exists to validate or support the child character in their development. It would be one-dimensional; but a temporary improvement.)

Dante