Loved it

Last night I went to a tiny little theater in the Village and saw Hounddog.  I feel like I've been hearing about this movie for over a year.  People have been protesting it due to a graphic scene involving Dakota Fanning, a minor.  I'm not going to rationalize it, and say it was no big deal, however with all the hype I was imagining something much worse.  I couldn't fight the curiosity from the negative press, however, and being a big Dakota fan, wanted to see for myself.  

The little theater was awesome.  My ticket was only $10, that being a steal as usually movie tickets in the city are $12-12.50.  Sodas and popcorn ranged from $2-5.  Seriously?  And there were only about 50 seats in my little theater.  To make it even better, Deborah Kampmeier, the writer of the movie, came out before it started to talk to the audience.  She said this movie had taken 12 years to make, and now that it's been released in limited theaters, they're working hard to have it released everywhere.

I love New York.  I love that every movie that's made can be found in the smallest little theater around, and the writers/actors will show up to make appearances.  (Charlize Theron was at the Lowes theater on 66th to do a Q&A session before the showing of Battle in Seattle just a few weeks ago.  Tickets were available for anyone.)

All that being said, I loved the movie.  There were two very short, uncomfortable scenes, and despite those, there was nothing in the movie that was questionable.  Dakota Fanning is such an amazing, talented little actress.  I hope she can stay straight, and not get screwed up like so much of young Hollywood.

And most of all I really, really loved the moral of the story.  Crappy things happen in life, and then it's up to us to decide if we will let it ruin us, or make something good come from it.  Maybe I just liked it so much because that's something I've been working on in the last year.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, as you definitely could be offended by the content, but if you think you can handle it, it really is a great show, and you should see it if it's playing in a theater near you.