It’s official – lots of rappers like to star in movies, and they’re rarely very good.
Eminem, starring in his first movie, “8 Mile,” joins rank with, among other rapper-actors, Ice Cube, Method Man, Red Man, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and Vanilla Ice (go rent “Cool as Ice” sometime for a good laugh). While this movie fares better than many of those made by the aforementioned people, it is nonetheless flawed and ultimately average.
At its core, the movie is about a young white rapper in Detroit named Jimmy Smith (Eminem) who has to earn respect because of his skin color. He tries to do so by competing in a series of freestyle rap competitions at local clubs.
In these rap-battles, two people face off on stage with a set amount of time to make up insulting rhymes on the fly about one’s foe. At the end, the audience cheers for whom they think should win.
Obviously, the movie has many sequences showcasing the freestyle flavor and talent of the local scenesters. The quality of the rapping ranges from mildly amusing to extremely clever (and sometimes downright offensive), and audiences are meant to believe it is all spontaneous, but since it’s a movie, any amount of time could have been spent preparing the rhymes. The illusion, however, is suitably well done.
Few movies bear plots that progress as slowly as “8 Mile.” It is relatively uneventful, and many scenes seem as if they could have been omitted because they only reiterate plot points or themes that were adequately presented in previous scenes. Much time is spent focusing on conversation between Jimmy and his friends, plotting their road to success and fantasizing about stardom. These scenes are too obvious and overbearing and sometimes lead to a vague feeling that you are simply watching the mundane events of someone’s everyday life.
“8 Mile” takes itself very seriously but fails to hit hard with many of its plot elements. Issues are solved in convenient ways which don’t quite produce a satisfying feeling of resolution. Conversely, other issues seem to come up at random, because of the spotty pacing of the film, turning a minor situation into a big deal without much explanation.
However, the movie must be given some credit for its gritty depiction of the characters’ lifestyles and how that plays into the way they handle problems, such as through violence and the spreading of gossip to damage their rivals’ credibility.
Eminem is not a strong actor, which is apparent in the more dramatic sequences, but he isn’t terrible either. He realistically portrays his role as a struggling ambitious rapper who lives paycheck to paycheck with his mother in a trailer park.
There are several instances when he exposes his inexperience – he sounds a bit forced and unnatural in many of the dialogues. Interestingly, he sometimes sounds awkward when he spouts profanity and slang with his friends or to the rival groups in Detroit.
Although the film is not supposed to be autobiographical of Eminem’s own humble roots in Detroit, many aspects hint at the story of his amateur beginning he has spoken of during interviews. For example, Jimmy’s mother, played by Kim Basinger, seems to have an unstable grasp on reality. She becomes irrational at random, which is similar to the picture Eminem paints of his real life mother.
As a result of the suspiciously close ties with Eminem’s history (it’s even set in the same city Eminem grew up in), it’s hard to shake the feeling that the movie is just an excuse to tell his story and build himself up to be an underground hero. If this were the stated purpose of the film, all would be well and people who went to see it would know what they were getting into. Putting a thinly veiled fictional disguise on the story only makes it seem a bit ridiculous.
It’s difficult to imagine that any review would stop serious Eminem fans from seeing “8 Mile,” and they are probably more likely to enjoy it than a non-fan or casual listener. Unfortunately much of the entertainment would come from seeing one of their favorite artists on the big screen rather than watching a quality film.
