Eminem's Homage to Theatrical Street Gangs

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2002)

The hype machine surrounding `8 Mile' has been supremely effective. We've by now been assaulted with so many reports of Eminem's `auspicious,' `dazzling,' and `stunning' acting debut  read: he doesn't suck  that it's quite easy to overlook the fact that the film itself is little more than a shopworn Impossible Dream Story that's as predictable as figuring out what part of his chocolate Easter bunny Mike Tyson will eat first.
Director Curtis Hanson sure-handedly lets us know that the titular Detroit neighborhood is, as Eminem himself might put it, `more poorer than you are.' Everyone's clothes are worn, their cars rusted, their houses decrepit. Even the sky seems unable to cast more than a bleak gray upon the wretched inhabitants below. Life around 8 Mile is so miserable, in fact, that the only salvation anyone finds is in freestyle rapping. No longer does the grizzled bluesman croon about his sorrows on the corner. No barbershop quartets singing sweet harmonies into the evening as they warm their hands over burning oil drums here. No, folks in 8 Mile seem to communicate exclusively in improvised insult rhyming. Indeed, even the street gangs settle their beefs with rap battles, recalling the dancing thugs of `West Side Story' and `Breakin.' Will Jimmy `Rabbit' Smith Jr. (Eminem) come up with clever enough rhymes to win the battle at the local club, giving him a shot at a recording contract? He's Eminem  you figure it out. There's an engaging film to be made on the culture of freestyle rap battles, as showcased by last 15 or so admittedly fun minutes of `8 Mile.' Unfortunately, a tiresome and silly plot forced upon a subject that doesn't necessarily need one keeps us from getting what we really want out of the film.