Free Republic

Alex (Claire Danes) and Greg (Jim Parsons) are young Brooklyn parents of the new middle class in “A Kid Like Jake”: progressive, acutely involved with their child’s development and a little self-congratulatory about how not self-congratulatory they are. As their 4-year-old, Jake, nears school age, they talk the talk about wanting to support public education, but also about wanting the best for their smart kid. Jake is more than just smart. As Judy (Octavia Spencer), a family friend who also supervises Jake’s preschool, points out, he enjoys “gender-expansive play.” When Alex and Greg refuse to allow him to dress up...

Did Morgan Spurlock find Osama bin Laden? 15 minutes of footage shown at film fest sparks bidding war, speculation MSNBC News Services updated 1:59 p.m. ET, Wed., Dec. 5, 2007 Rumors are flying that filmmaker Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me" fame may have done what the United States government has failed to do for the last six years — find Osama bin Laden. The speculation first began at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where Spurlock showed a select group of potential buyers 15 minutes of footage from his new documentary, "Where in the World Is Osama bin...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Precocious 12-year-old Dakota Fanning, star of the kids movie "Charlotte's Web," is as mad as she can be and is not going to take any more criticism about her latest role -- a rape victim. Fanning saw her newest movie "Hounddog" premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this week after months of complaints from religious groups and others who questioned whether her family and the film's maker acted responsibly when asking her to act in a rape scene. "When it gets to the point of attacking my mother, my agent ... my teacher, who were all...

A movie that includes a violent rape scene with 12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning as the victim has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and even though published reports have quoted a prosecutor saying there were no child pornography laws broken, there still remain big questions, according to experts. "Right away, I will tell you: 12-year-old Dakota Fanning plays a girl who endures a graphically suggested rape. If that's not enough, she is also filmed sleeping dreamily while a half dozen real snakes slither all over her," wrote Fox News' Roger Friedman in his review of the film. "The rape scene,...

Maybe the most controversial film heading to this month's Sundance Film Festival concerns the rape of a 12-year-old girl while Elvis Presley is heard singing in the background. "HoundDog," written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier, is already getting more advance attention than "Chapter 27," the film about Mark David Chapman murdering John Lennon. That's because the character played by 12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning, who made her mark six years ago in "I Am Sam," is raped onscreen. Kampmeier doesn't show the actual rape, but it's quite clear, from sources who've seen the film, that as scripted and directed, the scenes...

Controversial film-maker Michael Moore is planning to make a hard-hitting documentary based on US President George W. Bush's handling of the Hurricane Katrina rescue operation. Moore grabbed international acclaim with his scathing 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, which studied Bush's handling of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Oscar winner is now "seriously considering" documenting the catastrophe in America's Gulf Coast region. He tells the New York Daily News, "There is much to be said and done about the man-made annihilation of New Orleans, caused not by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in...