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Crime dramas typically do everything they can to throw the audience off the trail of the story's mystery, and sometimes supernatural or surreal elements come into play because of this. Making the audience question what's real and what's imagined is a great way to build unreliable narrators and a sense of dread throughout the episodes. Sometimes, these aspects of the plot can get so outlandish that the series becomes almost absurdist. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing since this distinguishes the show from the competition. There is no shortage of supernatural series and crime dramas out there.

There are many underrated recent detective TV shows that use these elements to make their stories unforgettable since a surreal tone sets apart a thriller series. TV is flooded with true crime dramas and docuseries that terrify the audience through realism. However, utilizing surrealism to communicate the horrors that people are capable...

Network: Bounce TV

Episodes: 49 (hour)

Seasons: Six

TV show dates: March 6, 2016 -- May 22, 2022

Series status: Ended

Performers include: Christian Keyes, Keith Robinson, J. D. Williams, Clifton Powell, Jasmine Burke, Gloria Reuben, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Afemo Omilami, and Demetria McKinney.

TV show description:      

This mystery soap opera revolves around the drama at the Greater Hope Baptist Church in Cypress, Georgia. The church began as a 10-member congregation when the Civil Rights Movement was at its height and being young, black and alone at night was a hazard of circumstance.

As times changed, the congregation grew and so did its influence in Cypress. When a violent murder rocks the community, the church that holds the secrets of the entire town is at risk of imploding -- as Detective Noah St. Charles...

Bounce has renewed Saints & Sinners for a fourth season for premiere in summer 2019. The network today also announced a new licensing agreement with Hulu for the first three seasons of the hit drama series, making all previous episodes available for streaming ahead of the Season 4 premiere. The deal marks the first time originally-produced content from the multicast network will be available on the premium streaming service.

Saints & Sinners centers around the pursuit of power, intertwined with greed, deception, corruption, compromising sexual affairs and murder – all set against the backdrop of a large southern church. Cliffhangers and twists abound in the series, which is set Cypress, Georgia, a sleepy southern town outside Atlanta.

The series stars Vanessa Bell Calloway, Clifton Powell, Christian Keyes, Keith Robinson, J.D. Williams, Jasmine Burke, Tray Chaney, Demetria McKinney, Afemo Omilami and Donna Biscoe.

Saints & Sinners is produced in partnership with Swirl Film’s...

Bounce TV just got a whole lot more dramatic. Recently, the network announced season three of Saints & Sinners is coming in April.From Ty Scott, the series revolves around the drama at the Greater Hope Baptist Church in Cypress, Georgia. The cast includes Vanessa Bell Calloway, Christian Keyes, Keith Robinson, Clifton Powell, Gloria Reuben, J.D. Williams, Jasmine Burke, Afemo Omilami, and Richard Lawson.Read More…...

Season one of Bounce TV's new Saints & Sinners TV series premieres Sunday, March 6, 2016, at 9:00pm Et/Pt. Watch a preview, below. Bounce says, "Shot on location in Atlanta, Saints & Sinners centers around the pursuit of power, intertwined with greed, deception, corruption and murder – all set against the backdrop of a large southern church."

The Saints & Sinners cast includes: Vanessa Bell Calloway, Christian Keyes, Keith Robinson, Clifton Powell, Gloria Reuben, J.D. Williams, Jasmine Burke, Afemo Omilami, and Richard Lawson.

Read More…...

True Detective June 2015 Episode Titles, Plots, Air Dates, TV Promos. HBO has released the True Detective: Season 2 episode titles, official plot synopses, and the air dates for the June 2015 episodes of its cop TV series. The True Detective episodes discussed are episodes 9-10. The two new True Detective: Season 2 TV commercials are entitled ‘Chaos’ and ‘Stand.’

On the two True Detective: Season 2 TV spots:

In the first trailer, Los Angeles detective Ray Velacro (Colin Farrell), a corrupt cop under the control of crime lord Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn), asks if he is even supposed to solve the case he’s investigating. Seymon also says at one point, “I need a direction to turn, or I may just start pulling down walls.”

The second trailer is a wordless, pulse-pouding look at the four main characters, including Ventura County Sheriff’s detective Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) and motorcyle...

HBO is now entering the heavy promotion stage for "True Detective" Season 2, which stars Rachel McAdams, Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and Taylor Kitsch and premieres June 21. The network recently shared two new teasers, even letting some of the high-profile cast occasionally speak instead of just looking menacing or depressed:

HBO also issued materials with more details on what will happen in the first two episodes, which air in June, listing more cast members and guest stars.

What's The Show About?

A bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal, each of whom must navigate a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California in "True Detective."

Colin Farrell plays Ray Velcoro, a troubled detective whose allegiances are torn between his masters in a corrupt police department and the mobster who owns him. Vince Vaughn portrays Frank Semyon, a criminal and entrepreneur in danger of...

True Detective 2 and all its stressful, chaotic madness is almost here, but first the network has a couple more teasers up its sleeves — in the form of an extended synopsis and first-episode details. As you know, "a bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal." That quad is portrayed by Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch, Rachel McAdams, and Vince Vaughn, respectively, and they're all going to dive into a mess tied to the United States' transportation system. (Kelly Reilly, Christopher James Baker, Afemo Omilami, Chris Kerson, James Frain, Lolita Davidovich, W. Earl Brown, David Morse, and Rick Springfield will round out some of the ancillary roles.) So just how messy is that mess?Well, here's the extended synopsis for the season: Colin Farrell (Golden Globe winner for “In Bruges”) plays Ray Velcoro, a troubled detective whose allegiances are torn between his masters in a corrupt police department...

Here's the complete list of winners; for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies, click here:

44th Annual NAACP Image Awards

Motion Picture

Motion Picture

.Beasts of the Southern Wild. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

.Django Unchained. (The Weinstein Company)

.Flight. (Paramount Pictures)

.Red Tails. (Lucasfilm) . Winner

.Tyler Perry.s Good Deeds. (Lionsgate)

Actor in a Motion Picture

Denzel Washington . .Flight. (Paramount Pictures) . Winner

Jamie Foxx . .Django Unchained. (The Weinstein Company)

Morgan Freeman . .The Magic of Belle Isle. (Magnolia Pictures)

Suraj Sharma . .Life of Pi. (20th Century Fox)

Tyler Perry . .Alex Cross. (Summit Entertainment)

Actress in a Motion Picture

Emayatzy Corinealdi . .Middle of Nowhere. (Aafrm)

Halle Berry . .Cloud Atlas. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Loretta Devine . .In The Hive. (Eone Entertainment)

Quvenzhané Wallis . .Beasts of the Southern Wild. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Viola Davis . .Won.t Back Down. (20th Century Fox) - Winner

Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

David Oyelowo . .Middle of Nowhere. (Affrm)

Don Cheadle...

The award is about image, but the image doesn't necessarily have to be upstanding.

Consider Denzel Washington as the pilot whose rescue of an airliner means the potential exposure of his vices in "Flight." That's one performance contending for outstanding actor in a motion picture in the 44th NAACP Image Awards, which NBC televises Friday, Feb, 1, from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

And that's not the only nomination gambling with the concept of "image." Don Cheadle's work as a ruthlessly ambitious consultant on Showtime's "House of Lies" has a bid for outstanding actor in a comedy series, and Vanessa Williams' sometimes questionable character on ABC's now-ended "Desperate Housewives" has her in the running for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series.

One of the most poignant NAACP nominations is that of the late Michael Clarke Duncan for the Fox show "The Finder," which ended shortly before his death last year.

The nominees for the 44th NAACP Image Awards were announced Tuesday, with Quentin Tarantino's slavery drama "Django Unchained" and Lifetime's "Steel Magnolias" revamp racking up multiple nominations. "Django Unchained" earned a nomination in the Outstanding Motion Picture category, with cast members Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington each earning their own individual nominations. "Steel Magnolias," meanwhile, is nominated for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special, with Afemo Omilami, Tory Kittles, Alfre Woodard, Phylicia Rashad and Queen Latifah also nominated for their work on the Lifetime project. In the TV categories,...

The NAACP Image Awards have announced the nominees for their 44th annual awards show during a live press conference from the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA. Anthony Anderson (Guys with Kids), Niecy Nash (The Soul Man), Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), Garcelle Beauvais (Flight), Tyler James Williams (Go On), and Zendaya (Shake It Up!) announced the categories and nominees.

The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors. Winners will be announced during the two-hour star-studded event, which will air live on Friday, February 1 (8 Et live/Pt tape-delayed) on NBC.

Following is the list of categories and nominees for the 44Th NAACP Image Awards:

Television

Outstanding Comedy Series

"Glee" (Fox)

"Modern Family" (ABC)

"The Game" (Bet)

"The Mindy Project" (Fox)

"The Soul Man" (TV...

Over the last few years, producer Chad Feehan has begun building a filmography for himself in independent film--most notably with his first film, feature-length production All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (which got some very positive notices in these parts before rights issues kept the film from being released in the U.S.). Now Feehan has taken on writing and directing duties for his own film, Beneath the Dark, the psychological thriller which hits DVD from IFC films on March 29th. The movie stars Josh Stewart (TV's No Ordinary Family, Law Abiding Citizen), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos, Entourage), along with Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone, and Afemo Omilami in a psychological thriller where young couple Paul and Adrienne "Paul and Adrienne pull off the highway and into...

Never heard of this flick until now. I received the info via email likely because there’s a brotha and sistah in it who seem to have notable roles of some kind (well, he does anyway).

His name is Afemo Omilami, by the way. He’s done a lot of TV, and has seen parts in bigger films. But I’m not too familiar with his work. Her name is Carlease Burke, and her resume is somewhat similar to his.

In the film, titled Beneath The Dark, Paul and Adrienne, a young couple burning up the desolate miles on the road between Texas and La, check into the equally desolate but eternally stylish Roy’s Motel and Cafe. As if preserved in time, the motel proves to be a strange and surreal place where the guests are forced to confront the secrets that they keep – from the world and from each other.

IFC Films has acquired North American rights to “Wake,” from director Chad Feehan. The psychological thriller made its world premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival.

Feehan, who makes his directorial debut on the film, also wrote the screenplay; he produced the film with Amanda Micallef and Lea-Beth Shapiro. The film stars Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone and Afemo Omilami.

IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Chad Feehan's psychological thriller Wake following its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year. Feehan also wrote the screenplay and produced the film, along with Amanda Micallef and Lea-Beth Shapiro. Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone and Afemo Omilami star in the story of two people en route to a wedding who stop off at a sinister motel in the Mojave Desert. IFC will release through its IFC Midnight VOD pipeline. Lizzie Nastro brokered the deal with Ben Weiss of Paradigm Motion Picture Finance Group on behalf of the film-makers. Feehan will next direct Beyond The Pale that he is adapting from William Gays novel Twilight.

Chad Feehan's psychological thriller "Wake" has been picked up by IFC Films, the company said Wednesday. The film, which stars Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone and Afemo Omilami, made its world premiere in March at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival. IFC, which took North American rights to the feature, will release the film via its IFC Midnight on demand platform which brings films to on-demand viewers across the ...

Director: Chad Feehan Writer: Chad Feehan Starring: Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone, Afemo Omilami, Trevor Morgan, Christopher Gessner, Robert Maxhimer, Jeannetta Arnette, Grainger Hines Paul (Josh Stewart) and Adrienne (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) are on a road trip to Los Angeles for one of Paul’s old fraternity brothers’ wedding. It has been a long drive across the barren desert and Adrienne is getting frisky. Adrienne’s friskiness distracts Paul and causes him to lose control of the SUV. Paul realizes that he is too tired and Adrienne is too horny – and both of them are too freaked out from that near death experience – to continue any further along the highway. They discover Roy’s Motel and Cafe, which is eerily void of humanity – that is except for Frank (Chris Browning), the incredibly creepy inn keeper. The only way this horror show would have been any more obvious is...

Fans of Ewan McGregor, Kristen Stewart and James Van Der Beek (!) will be seeing double this spring, as arthouses and multiplexes host an array of indie films ranging from the travails of septuagenarian New Yorkers looking for love ("The Last New Yorker") to 13-year-old assassins on the hunt for their first kill ("Kick-Ass"). If real life is more your speed, there are new documentaries about reviving animation strips (the Disney doc "Waking Sleeping Beauty") and stripping down (the burlesque history "Behind the Burly Q"), while foreign wonders like the French crime epics "A Prophet" and "Mesrine" mix with Korean treasures "Mother" and "The Good, The Bad and The Weird."

But of course, why limit yourself to just what's playing in the first-run theater near you? We've also included a look at the films that will be playing Anywhere But a Movie Theater (online, on demand, and on DVD) in the next few months,...

Chad Feehan's (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) film Wake will have its premiere at the South by Southwest film festival, which, as reported, kicks off March 12th. The film's plot centers on the Roy's Motel. Here characters Paul and Adrienne step into a "surreal place" (SXSW). This is Feehan's first time in the director's chair and he describes the film here: "we took your traditional, eerie Motel backdrop with unsettling characters similar to Psycho or Identity, then infused it with the drama and emotions" (Twitch). This will be the one to see in Austin, Texas. For anyone not able to make it, more details to follow.

The official synopsis for Wake here:

"Driving to a wedding in Los Angeles through the Mojave Desert, Paul and Adrienne pull off the highway and into Roy’s Motel and Café. This roadside artifact proves to be a strange and surreal place...

Less than a week worth of recovering from the Sundance Film Festival, and we are already looking forward to our next, big film fest coverage. That would be the South by Southwest Film Festival held annually in Austin, Texas. Last year, Scott and I brought you all kinds of coverage from the Lone Star State, and this year doesn’t look to be much different.

With that, the announcement came last night of the feature films that will be playing at the SXSW Film Festival. Previous announcement were already made about films like Cold Weather, Electra Luxx, Hubble 3D, Lemmy, Saturday Night, and The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights making their debut. Kick-ass was recently announced as the opening night film, as well.

Among the other films being presented this year are some Sundance darlings, a few, highly anticipated premieres, and MacGruber.

Check out the full list...

Late yesterday the SXSW Fim Festival, which runs from March 12-20 in Austin, TX, announced the full lineup of films that will be screening at this year’s event. And baby, it’s quite a list. Mixing big name films with intimate indie gems, the sheer number of films and the vast array of talented filmmakers is sure to be a hit with attendees and critics alike.

This lineup includes premieres of studio films such as Universal’s MacGruber, Lionsgate’s teen superhero actioneer Kick-Ass and smaller films like Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart and Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine. With so many films to watch, it will be very difficult to find time to seem them all during the events nine days. But hell, we’re going to try.

For more on...

Next month the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival will be in full swing down in awesome Austin, Texas, and we've got a look at what horror flicks will be sending super-sized chills down the spines of festival goers.

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the complete features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 12–20, 2010, in Austin, Texas. Over the course of nine days, 119 features will screen at the festival, with 55 of those having their world premieres at SXSW 2010. These films were selected from a record 1,572 film submissions composed of 1,206 U.S. and 366 international feature-length films.

Midnighters series: Scary, funny, sexy, controversial – provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.

Amer (Belgium)

"Ana is confronted to Body and Desire at three key moments of her life."

Directors: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. Screenwriter: Bruno Forzani

Cast: Bianca Maria D’Amato,...

The 2010 SXSW Film Festival and Conference has announced its initial slate of titles. The list is rife with hot world premieres (Kick-Ass), films fresh from Sundance (The Runaways, Cyrus), hot titles from the 2009 editions of Tiff and Cannes that haven't had much U.S. play (Enter the Void, Dogtooth, Trash Humpers), interesting documentaries (Lemmy, The People v. George Lucas) and much, much more. Simon Rumley's Red, White & Blue, which has received much praise on Twitch based on its Iffr screenings, will have its North American premiere.

Midnight programming courtesy of Fantastic Fest is also back with titles like Higanjima, Monsters, Serbian Film, Outcast, and a yet to be announced special film. Keep eye out for SXSW coverage at Twitch, but for now, pursue the massive list below (descriptions courtesy of SXSW).

Headliners

Big names, big talent:  Headliners bring star power to SXSW, featuring red carpet premieres and gala film...

By Harvey Karten - In 1954 the United States Supreme Court declared racial segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. In 1964, President Johnson, who had more influence with the Congress than the current chief executive, got a major civil rights act passed far reaching and had tremendous long-term impacts on the whole country. It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the southern U.S. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring.

Blood Done Sign My Name (Paladin)

Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey Karten

Grade: B+

Directed by: Jeb Stuart

Written By: Jeb Stuart, adapted from Tim Tyson's book

Cast: Michael Rooker, Rick Schroder, Omar Benson Miller, Nick Searcy, Afemo Omilami, Lela Rochon, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Gattlin Griffith

Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 1/25/10

Opens: February 19, 2010

You wouldn't know this by watching Jeb Stuart's riveting film,...

This is new to me…

Written and directed by Jeb Stuart, and starring Nate Parker, the rest of the cast includes Rick Schroder, Afemo Omilami, Lela Rochon, Omar Benson Miller, Sahr Ngaujah, Nick Searcy, Michael Rooker, Darrin Dewitt Henson and Gattlin Griffith.

Blood Done Sign My Name tells the true story of the the 1970 murder of Henry Marrow in a rural North Carolina town, by Robert Teel and his sons, the aftermath of the murder and the eventual acquittal of the Teels by an all white jury, in spite of multiple eye witnesses to the murder. The film is based on a book of the same name, by Timothy Tyson.

A theatrical release is planned for February (naturally, it’s Black History Month), according to the film’s IMDb page.

Blackvoices.com has an exclusive look at the trailer, which you can watch below.

Kim Voynar saw and reviewed Hounddog for Cinematical way back in January of 2007 when the Deborah Kampmeier drama played at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is scheduled for a limited release this weekend (by a small new distributor called Empire Film Group), and of course the movie is back in the news again. It's also important to note that the film has been recut since Sundance and the version reviewed her does, in fact, differ from the version in theaters. With all that in mind, we offer you a reprint of Ms. Voynar's original review of Hounddog. -- SW

Let's get this out there right from the top: Yes, Dakota Fanning's performance in Hounddog is mature, powerful, and everything it should be to launch her career to the next level as a young actress who can handle serious roles. That said, however, Hounddog is also one of the...

PARK CITY -- "Hounddog" is the bete noire at this year's Sundance Film Festival. But as is often the case, most of the protests were coming from people who haven't seen it. There is nothing exploitive or sensationalized about the story of a 12-year-old girl's rape in the rural South in the late 1950s. Starring Dakota Fanning in an absolutely riveting performance, the film, directed by Deborah Kampmeier, is a cautionary tale of what happens to all too many young girls. It's a courageous film, and subject matter and controversy will undoubtedly create some curiosity at the boxoffice.

Prefestival buzz about the danger of exposing poor 12-year-old Fanning to this kind of material proves unwarranted and disingenuous in a society that is constantly sexualizing young girls. The character's sexual awakening just happens to be in 1958, triggered in part by the eroticism of Elvis Presley's music. As Lewellen, a jewel among the rotting cars and run-down shacks in rural Alabama, Fanning projects a strange mix of innocence and awareness. The triumph of her performance is her ability to turn it on and off in the same scene, sometimes even in the same shot.

Lewellen shuttles back and forth between living with her abusive, alcoholic father (David Morse) and her strict, God-fearing grandmother (Piper Laurie, reprising her role from "Carrie"). For a young girl just hitting puberty, the mix of repressiveness and permissiveness (she sips from her father's beer bottle) has to be confusing. Her mother long out of the picture, she desperately wants a female role model, a role that her father's sometime girlfriend Robin Wright Penn) is in no shape to provide. As a child, she was probably raped, too.

Lewellen is pretty much left to figure things out for herself. Her only friend is Buddy (Cody Hanford), a sweet neighborhood boy for whom she has a normal sexual curiosity. The sole adult looking out for her is Charles (Afemo Omilami), a horse trainer for the rich people. As an embodiment of the female spirit and the injustice women endure, Lewellen has an instinctive bond with Charles, the oppressed black man.

The only thing that keeps Lewellen sane is singing, which is ironically what gets her in trouble. When she sings and gyrates to "Hounddog", she is both aware and not aware of what she's doing. Unfortunately, the kid who delivers the milk (Christoph Sanders) catches her act and is turned on. When he lures her to the woods with the promise of a ticket to see Elvis and does the deed, we see little of the gory details; the scene is shot matter-of-factly without excess.

Occasionally, Kampmeier lays on the southern Gothic too heavily. Snakes are crawling everywhere in the movie, and after Lewellen is raped, she is visited in bed by a bunch of reptiles. The tone of the story veers from the naturalistic to the mythical, but it is sometimes inconsistent, and a couple of plot points are overplayed. Still, in spite of a few missteps, the cumulative impact of the film is undeniable.

Shot beautifully by Ed Lachman, Jim Denault and Stephen Thompson, the darkness and light in the forest conjures up the lair of a fairy tale princess, which is the kind of archetypal power Kampmeier is aiming for. After the incident, which threatens to destroy her life, Lewellen is rescued not by a prince but by Charles, who forces her to exorcise her demons by singing the blues. Her now hesitant and soulful rendition of "Hounddog" is both heartbreaking and life-affirming.

A bluesy score by Me'shell Ndegeocello and period songs, including Big Momma Thorton's original version of "Hounddog", evoke the mournful undertone of life in the South. It is from this kind of suffering that artists are born. Lewellen might not be well or cured, but she is on the mend, which is a start.

HOUNDDOG

The Motion Picture Group in association with Full Moon Films and Deerjen Prods.

Credits:

Director-screenwriter: Deborah Kampmeier

Producers: Deborah Kampmeier, Jen Gatien, Raye Dowell, Terry Leonard, Lawrence Robbins

Executive producers: Robin Wright Penn, Scott Franklin, Henri Kessler, Rebecca Cleary, Stacey Bakula

Directors of photography: Ed Lachman, Jim Denault, Stephen Thompson

Production designer: Tim Grimes

Music: Me'shell Ndegeocello

Costume designer: Leigh Leverett

Editor: Sabine Hoffman

Cast:

Lewellen: Dakota Fanning

Grammie: Piper Laurie

Daddy: David Morse

Stranger Lady: Robin Wright Penn

Charles: Afemo Omilami

Buddy: Cody Hanford

Wooden's Boy: Christoph Sanders

Grasshopper: Isabelle Fuhrman

Big Momma Thorton: Jill Scott

Running time -- 98 minutes

No MPAA rating...

PARK CITY -- "Hounddog" is the bete noire at this year's Sundance Film Festival. But as is often the case, most of the protests were coming from people who haven't seen it. There is nothing exploitive or sensationalized about the story of a 12-year-old girl's rape in the rural South in the late 1950s. Starring Dakota Fanning in an absolutely riveting performance, the film, directed by Deborah Kampmeier, is a cautionary tale of what happens to all too many young girls. It's a courageous film, and subject matter and controversy will undoubtedly create some curiosity at the boxoffice.

Prefestival buzz about the danger of exposing poor 12-year-old Fanning to this kind of material proves unwarranted and disingenuous in a society that is constantly sexualizing young girls. The character's sexual awakening just happens to be in 1958, triggered in part by the eroticism of Elvis Presley's music. As Lewellen, a jewel among the rotting cars and run-down shacks in rural Alabama, Fanning projects a strange mix of innocence and awareness. The triumph of her performance is her ability to turn it on and off in the same scene, sometimes even in the same shot.

Lewellen shuttles back and forth between living with her abusive, alcoholic father (David Morse) and her strict, God-fearing grandmother (Piper Laurie, reprising her role from "Carrie"). For a young girl just hitting puberty, the mix of repressiveness and permissiveness (she sips from her father's beer bottle) has to be confusing. Her mother long out of the picture, she desperately wants a female role model, a role that her father's sometime girlfriend Robin Wright Penn) is in no shape to provide. As a child, she was probably raped, too.

Lewellen is pretty much left to figure things out for herself. Her only friend is Buddy (Cody Hanford), a sweet neighborhood boy for whom she has a normal sexual curiosity. The sole adult looking out for her is Charles (Afemo Omilami), a horse trainer for the rich people. As an embodiment of the female spirit and the injustice women endure, Lewellen has an instinctive bond with Charles, the oppressed black man.

The only thing that keeps Lewellen sane is singing, which is ironically what gets her in trouble. When she sings and gyrates to "Hounddog", she is both aware and not aware of what she's doing. Unfortunately, the kid who delivers the milk (Christoph Sanders) catches her act and is turned on. When he lures her to the woods with the promise of a ticket to see Elvis and does the deed, we see little of the gory details; the scene is shot matter-of-factly without excess.

Occasionally, Kampmeier lays on the southern Gothic too heavily. Snakes are crawling everywhere in the movie, and after Lewellen is raped, she is visited in bed by a bunch of reptiles. The tone of the story veers from the naturalistic to the mythical, but it is sometimes inconsistent, and a couple of plot points are overplayed. Still, in spite of a few missteps, the cumulative impact of the film is undeniable.

Shot beautifully by Ed Lachman, Jim Denault and Stephen Thompson, the darkness and light in the forest conjures up the lair of a fairy tale princess, which is the kind of archetypal power Kampmeier is aiming for. After the incident, which threatens to destroy her life, Lewellen is rescued not by a prince but by Charles, who forces her to exorcise her demons by singing the blues. Her now hesitant and soulful rendition of "Hounddog" is both heartbreaking and life-affirming.

A bluesy score by Me'shell Ndegeocello and period songs, including Big Momma Thorton's original version of "Hounddog", evoke the mournful undertone of life in the South. It is from this kind of suffering that artists are born. Lewellen might not be well or cured, but she is on the mend, which is a start.

HOUNDDOG

The Motion Picture Group in association with Full Moon Films and Deerjen Prods.

Credits:

Director-screenwriter: Deborah Kampmeier

Producers: Deborah Kampmeier, Jen Gatien, Raye Dowell, Terry Leonard, Lawrence Robbins

Executive producers: Robin Wright Penn, Scott Franklin, Henri Kessler, Rebecca Cleary, Stacey Bakula

Directors of photography: Ed Lachman, Jim Denault, Stephen Thompson

Production designer: Tim Grimes

Music: Me'shell Ndegeocello

Costume designer: Leigh Leverett

Editor: Sabine Hoffman

Cast:

Lewellen: Dakota Fanning

Grammie: Piper Laurie

Daddy: David Morse

Stranger Lady: Robin Wright Penn

Charles: Afemo Omilami

Buddy: Cody Hanford

Wooden's Boy: Christoph Sanders

Grasshopper: Isabelle Fuhrman

Big Momma Thorton: Jill Scott

Running time -- 98 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Opens

April 9

The makers of "The Alamo", the new movie based on the legendary defense and fall of the Texas compound, want to wrestle this piece of American history from the ranks of jingoism and patriotic fervor. They enjoy partial success, but this results in an epic that sometimes stalls in static, talky sequences that try to situate the heroic feat in the cross-currents of history and sort out an array of colorful characters whose bios must be divorced from legend.

"The Alamo", directed by native Texan John Lee Hancock, making only his second feature, is a respectable and at times an exciting film that should appeal to males of all ages, history buffs and -- yes, it's inevitable -- patriots. But even that might be too narrow a demographic for a film whose budget insiders peg at $98 million. Over time and around the world, the film should generate profits, but the guess here is that it will fall short of the blockbuster status originally envisioned when Disney greenlighted the film.

Produced by Oscar-winners Mark Johnson and Ron Howard (who bowed out as director when the studio reportedly balked at his fee), "The Alamo" is a beautifully mounted historical re-creation. One senses authenticity in the costumes, sets, snatches of period music, military strategy and character sketches. Indeed, the first 40 minutes swims in political history and larger-than-life personalities to such a degree that the movie risks confusing general audiences not up on the American scene circa 1835-36. Eventually, the characters and their positions grow clearer as the centerpiece showdown draws nearer, but the movie clearly struggles to decide which -- and whose -- story to tell.

Several superstars of the 1830s are brought together for the battle. Most notable are Tennessee mountain man and furious self-promoter Davy Crockett Billy Bob Thornton), great knife-fighter and shady militiaman James Bowie (Jason Patric), nation-building Gen. Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid), Mexican dictator Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (Emilio Echevarria) and the one person perhaps made famous by the event itself, Lt. Col. William Travis (Patrick Wilson), a young Alabama officer and lawyer whom chance made temporary commander of the old mission turned into a fort known as the Alamo.

The script, written by Leslie Bohem, Stephen Gaghan and Hancock adds other characters such as Juan Seguin (Jordi Molla), a sympathetic Mexican, or Tejano, to demonstrate that the siege wasn't simply Latinos vs. Anglos, two black slaves (Edwin Hodge and Afemo Omilami) to represent that point of view and a couple of peripheral women.

The confusion of the opening scenes gives way to an intense stalemate as 2,400-odd Mexican soldiers surround a poorly designed fortress holding fewer than 200 rebels and -- its one attribute -- several powerful cannons. As the men sweat out the remaining days of their lives, Hancock also wants to sweat out their true selves.

Crockett comes off as a showman and master of the grand gesture, who admits to being a creation of 19th century media. Easily the movie's most fully drawn character, Thornton's role straddles the wide gap between the Disney television version of Crockett and the political opportunist who is shocked but amused to realize his ultimate demise will actually substantiate much that is his legend.

Patric's Bowie enters the Alamo a seemingly healthy man but swiftly takes to his bed, a victim not only of consumption but too many near-fatal wounds from his fighting past. Initially a rival of Bowie, Wilson's Travis grows in moral resolve and confidence as the 13-day siege wears on. Quaid's Houston gets sidelined by the movie's understandable focus on the Alamo. Raising and training an army in another part of Texas, Quaid can do little more than furrow his brow until redeemed by his strategy to lure the egomaniacal Santa Anna to his downfall following the triumph at the Alamo. Echevarria's Mexican general is an all-too-conventional villain, a vainglorious popinjay consumed by sensual desires during the siege and contemptuous of his own men's lives.

The movie shows signs of postproduction stress syndrome with key characters getting short shift, others drifting through without much introduction and situations emerging without explanation, the most notable being at the climatic battle of San Jacinto, where Santa Anna, fully dressed one minute, is seen running in underwear.

By default, Crockett dominates the movie until his demise, then somewhat disconcertingly, Houston, portrayed chiefly as a drunk until the siege, draws the focus. Mostly, the movie lacks the moments or gestures that will cement relationships and galvanize audience emotions. You will remember this "Alamo", but the sum and substance of conflict remains a little sketchy.

Under Hancock's command, cinematographer Dean Semler helps you understand the spatial relationships inside and outside the fortress, designer Michael Corenblith achieves the true grit of the forlorn compound and editor Eric L. Beason performs the Herculean task of giving movement to a static situation. Carter Birwell's score is serviceable though conventional.

THE ALAMO

Buena Vista Pictures

Touchstone Pictures/Imagine Entertainment

Credits:

Director: John Lee Hancock

Screenwriters: Leslie Bohem, Stephen Gaghan, John Lee Hancock

Producers: Mark Johnson, Ron Howard

Executive producers: Todd Hallowell, Philip Steuer

Director of photography: Dean Semler

Production designer: Michael Corenblith

Music: Carter Birwell

Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi

Editor: Eric L. Beason

Cast: Sam Houston: Dennis Quaid

Davy Crockett: Billy Bob Thornton

Jim Bowie: Jason Patric

William Travis: Patrick Wilson

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna: Emilio Echevarria

Juan Seguin: Jordi Molla

Running time -- 137 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...