| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 17, 2011

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

| Original Score: 0/4 | Oct 31, 2008

Only Fanning's emotional honesty makes Hounddog watchable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 18, 2008

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

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4 | Sep 26, 2008

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

| Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 25, 2008

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

| Original Score: C | Sep 19, 2008

The clichs are thick as the kudzu in 1956 Alabama.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 19, 2008

Rarely has there been a movie as misguided as Hounddog, which self-righteously indulges in exploitation while loudly decrying it.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 19, 2008

The problems that plague the movie land squarely with the writer, director and producer, Deborah Kampmeier, who has crafted a howler of a bad script, shows little affinity for working with actors and displays no visual sense behind the camera.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 19, 2008

A bewildering slice of southern gothic hokum, it suffers from a weak script, proving that old saw about actors being only as good as the lines they're given.

| Sep 19, 2008

Dakota Fanning takes an impressive step forward in her career, but that's about the only good thing about Hounddog.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 19, 2008

This overripe tale of innocence lost has become one of notoriety found.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

Pretty but overwrought, Hounddog doesn't deserve its infamy, nor does it merit being seen or remembered.

| Original Score: C | Sep 18, 2008

Fanning is exceptional, anchoring the film with the confidence of an actress thrice her age.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 18, 2008

Under the circumstances, Fanning is remarkably collected and even dignified. As for the rest of the gang, they ought to be returned to sender.

| Original Score: F | Sep 17, 2008

Ms. Fanning's performance alone makes Hounddog worth seeing in this age of child Duses.

| Sep 17, 2008

The symbolism [is] clobbering.

| Sep 17, 2008

... a laughably lurid, vulgar parade of barefoot children, Gothic stereotypes, and "Fetch me a Co-Cola" dialogue you thought had gone out with God's Little Acre and Tobacco Road.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 16, 2008

Wright Penn evidently helped get the film financed, but her big scenes feel shoehorned in. This is Dakota Fanning's film.

| Sep 15, 2008