Film

This slice of Southern gothic was so reviled at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival that we almost wish this reedited cut were some sort of cinematic triumph. It would make a hell of a story and would appeal to our contrarian sensibility. Alas, Kempmeier traffics in Southern clichés so broad that at one point we wondered if this was meant as some sort of parody. Morse plays a leering, lumbering white-trash hick, Laurie is a stern, Bible-quoting matron, and Fanning wanders around the humid backwoods locales exuding burgeoning pubescent sexuality like a juvenile version of a Tennessee Williams heroine. In case the theme of emerging sexuality is unclear, Kempmeier throws in not just one snake, but dozens of them.

Little Lewellen (Fanning) lives with her maternal grandmother (Laurie) and her father (Morse), who is such a sinner he actually gets struck by lightning in midfilm. Lewellen loves Elvis Presley and does an imitation of him that perches right on the discomfiting border between kiddie-cute and teen-dirty. Fanning’s premature expression of womanhood is the driving force of the film, with men and boys (well, all but the local black-man-as-sage, Omilami) practically snorting and whinnying in lust. The entire South should sue for defamation of caricature.