Lose Yourself

Rating: 5/10 (19 February 2018)

In 8 Mile, Eminem is Jimmy 'Rabbit' Smith a slightly fictionalised version of himself living in a working class neighbourhood of Detroit. Rabbit has moved back to his trailer thrash mum (Kim Basinger) after a break up with his girlfriend.
Rabbit works hard, his friend gets him gigs to engage in rap battles in clubs where he is dubbed as Elvis, AKA as a white guy trying to sell a piece of black culture. The trouble is Rabbit gets overcome with nerves every time he tries to perform in front of a crowd and take his rival down.
8 Mile is an underdog story as the working class guy makes good with the help of his multi racial friends.
Director Curtis Hanson uses all his Oscar winning skills to try to sell this as a real, gritty film. Eminem is rather flat swerving somewhere between mournful and angry. Each time he goes to his mother's house it ends up in some sort of a fight. Basinger never convinces as a rough lower working class mom type.
The script wants to be a modern version of Saturday Night Fever but it lacks that film's showboating.