A right ear-bashing

Rating: Null/10 (19 November 2002)

Believe it or not, I didn't attend the European premiere of '8 Mile' cos I love Eminem's music, I'm not hip enough for that . I went to see this movie cos it was directed by Curtis Hanson, whose last two films "LA Confidential" and "Wonder Boys" were two of most interesting films to come out of Hollywood in the last few years. So I knew that '8 Mile' wouldn't be given the normal glossy treatment.
and so it proved. Filmed on location in Detroit, it has a look and a cast that feels uncomfortably authentic. You really feel the hopeless squalor these people have to live in - 8 Mile incidentally refers to the road that acts as a boundary between the right side of the tracks (i.e.; the white side) and the wrong side (the black). Eminem stars as a young piece of white trash (gosh what a surprise!) who was born on the wrong side of the tracks. He, his mother and daughter live in a run-down trailer. His mother is also having a relationship with local slob who is only using her until his redundancy payment comes through and hates Eminem because he can see through him. It's a pretty dark picture. Faced with a bleak and hopeless future Eminem together with his multi-ethnic friends cruise the streets in cars that barely work. His only way to express his despair and frustration is through rapping.
The centrepiece of the film revolves around hip-hop contests where in a pugilistic battle of words - the prize-fighter imagery is none too subtle here - two rappers throw insults at each other, the winner being the one who has the last word, literally.
and yet..although there are no glib Hollywood endings, either upbeat or downbeat this does contain a few things which left me feeling a little uncomfortable. Casting Kim Bassinger as Eminem's mother is a good start. Although Kim does a fine turn as the sluttish white Trash mother, you always get the feeling that come the end of the shoot, off will come the make-up and this stunningly beautiful film star will reappear. This is reinforced by the little girl who plays Eminem's daughter. She is so cute that she comes straight out of the Shirley Temple school of toddlers. She, of course, adores and is adored by her big brother. Altogether now..."aarrrr".
There are some Guns in the film, most notably when one of Eminems' friends - who plays the stupid and clumsy comic side-kick - manages to shoot himself in the thigh, at least I hope it was the thigh. There are a couple of beatings and fist-fights but these result in a few bruised ribs and black eyes rather than any permanent damage. Indeed the worst acts of crime these boys seem to get up to is firing paint balls at the local police cars..and..where are the drugs? It seems in this movie people get high on a few bottles of Bud.
I know I'm being a little glib here. It is great to see a movie that looks this real and does not the portray the "blacks in the ghetto" as either out of their boxes on crack, or blowing out each others brains in drug-related gang wars, but you can it take too far the other way.
Enough of the brickbats. Eminem gives a sensitive and intelligent performance for a first-timer although not Oscar-winning since it's far too one-dimensional. Moreover, it does confirm what people were beginning to suspect from his music; that there is a lot more to Eminem than the Demon from hell the tabloids like to portray him as.
Putting this film into the right context and especially when comparing it with the usual 'Star Vehicles' that are produced to carry the latest pop sensation into the movies, this really is a fine film.
A couple of points I picked up from the Screening. There was a large crowd at the showing who were probably there for Eminem, on the chance he might turn up personally. A pretty good indicator of his pulling power. He didn't turn up by the way, but Curtis Hanson did. At the end of the screening, he talked unpretentiously about the film and was honest enough to admit that hip-hop wasn't really his sort of music. He also answered the obvious question about whether the film, in which 95% of the cast was black, would have been as successful in the white mainstream market if Eminem had not starred in him. Well, if he hadn't starred in it, it wouldn't have made was the simple answer. As I was leaving the cinema I had a quick check to see how many black faces there had been in the audience. There were a few..they were the ushers.