You Ain't Nothin' But a Movie That's Not Opening Here

Ah, sadness,my friends. I've been informed that "Hounddog," Deborah Kampmeier's instantly notorious but apparently undistributatable work of Dakota gothic -- that's Fanning, by the way, not North or South -- will not be opening in this or any other town. According to the Hartford Courrant, the AMC movie chain has buckled under pressure from angry family groups who've been boycotting the movie since they read the plot synopsis.

The film stars Fanning as a backwoods Alabama lass whose hobbies include singing the blues and whose home traumas, notoriously, include rape. And it's been beset with protests that started with its debut at last year's Sundance Film Festival -- from Christian groups and child's rights advocates accusing Kampmeier of kidsploitation, from certain film critics accusing her of brutal incompetence.

The film had been recut since 2007 and Kampmeier stands behind it. But her exhibitors don't. As admittedly bad as the movie, somebody should get to see it. But in this economic climate, though, nobody feels compelled to take risks, especially on movies that people have spent two years hissing at.

But don't despair, Fannatics, your queen will be back soon with "The Secret Life of Bees," a warmer, less controversial bucket of same.