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8 Mile stars Eminem as Jimmy Smith Jr., also known as Rabbit. This
name was given to him either by his mother because as a child he had
buck teeth and big ears or by his friends who say he's fast and he likes
to fuck a lot. Believe whichever story you'd like. They're both pretty
funny. The movie tells the story of the fears and doubts that Rabbit, an
extremely talented young hip-hop artist must face and overcome in order
to take the next step and get out of Detroit, where the film is set.
Hence the film's title - referring to the boundary separating the black
and white communities in the Motor City.
The film, set in 1995, starts with Rabbit at 'The Shelter' where, every
weekend, there is a showdown in which hip-hop artists face-off against
one another in 45-second matches, trying to outdo their opponent and
where the crowd decides who moves on to the next round and ultimately
who is the weekend's champion. However, when Rabbit's turn comes, he
chokes.
From this point, Rabbit's struggles continue, as he must deal not only
with the disgrace of having been booed off stage, but also with the
shame of having moved back into the trailer park with his mother (Kim
Basinger) after he breaks up with his girlfriend, that his mother is
dating someone Rabbit doesn't particularly get along with, the pressures
he must deal with at work and from his friends, and finally the bad
blood with a rival gang of hip-hoppers. All in all, that is a lot to
deal with - for anyone.
As the movie's tagline reminds us, 'Every moment is another chance', and
even though he is strong enough, talented enough, smart enough and has a
number of opportunities at his fingertips, Rabbit must deal with the
demons within before he can take that chance. On the one hand, one of
his friends (who organizes the Showdowns) is encouraging him to compete
and gain credibility in order make his way out, and he has another
'friend' who is telling Rabbit that he has connections and can get him
studio time to record a demo. Finally, he has the security of a job.
This is where we get the great line from the trailer: "You ever
wonder at what point you gotta stop livin' up here and start livin' down
here". At what point should he give up on his dreams and come down
to reality and accept that working in a factory is all he is ever going
to do with his life?
Now, I don't know much about Eminem or how much of this story is based
on the real life of Eminem, so I can't really commentate about it's
accurateness, but I will say that this was a pretty damn good movie.
From the story, to the performances, to the direction, to the visuals
this movie is solid. For his first starring role in a major motion
picture, Eminem is brilliant. As a musician making the transformation to
the big screen, he fares ten times better than most who make that leap.
(Britney Spears in Crossroads comes to mind.) Maybe this was due to the
fact that the story may have been grounded so much in reality, but
either way I was pretty impressed. In her role as the deadbeat trailer
park mom, Basinger was good as were Mekhi Phifer and Brittany Murphy in
their respective supporting roles. And for a bunch of people I've never
really heard of, the rest of the cast was pretty strong.
When speaking of this movie, I read director Curtis Hanson had this to
say:
"I saw here an opportunity to make a serious movie about the
emotional struggles of contemporary adolescents in this country. This
captures the angst, insecurity, frustration and anger, search for
direction and identity."
If this is what he set out to do, it is safe to say that Hanson
succeeded.
As far as criticisms are concerned, I have a few. One would be that that
I felt that all of the sub-plots weren't adequately concluded. I would
have liked to have known more about what happened to Rabbit's mother and
younger sister, other than one well-timed stroke of luck. Furthermore, I
wasn't really satisfied with the sub-plot involving Rabbit's
ex-girlfriend. While the scene where she shows up at the plant where he
works was essential, I felt that there was not enough time devoted to
her character and the history of their relationship. Finally, although I
liked Brittany Murphy in her role as the aspiring model also trying to
make her way out of Detroit, I thought her character was too
predictable. From the moment she said she was looking for her ticket out
of Detroit, I knew exactly what was going to happen. And after
everything I thought would happen did happen, I found the rest of her
story to be rather unrealistic.
In conclusion, I will highly recommend this movie to everyone. For those
of you out there who are concerned that this movie was made a vehicle to
promote Eminem - you needn't worry. This movie will not disappoint.
 
- 8/10
Liam Cullin -
Editor-in-Chief
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