A Movie Related to Afro-American Culture, Using Music as a Weapon

Rating: 6/10 (10 September 2003)

`B-Rabbit' (Eminem) is a young man living in a poor district of Detroit. He spend his time working as a worker in a sheet-metal stamping press for parts of cars and with his four friends, participating in raps and hip-hop competitions. He dreams on being successful with music and consequently leaving that poor area of Detroit. He is living temporarily with his mother Stephany (a Kim Basinger without any glamour) and his young sister Lily. He meets Alex (the charming Brittany Murphy) and starts dating with her. The climax of this movie is the dispute of rap in the end of the plot between B-Rabbit and the Free World group. I myself expected much more of this movie than offered. It is not a bad film, but it is very related to Afro-Americans culture. There is one great aspect to be highlighted in this movie: Hollywood loves to show these ghettos of poor people as places where only drug dealers, bandits and criminals live. This movie redeems these poor areas, showing simple, honest and working people fighting for survival and having some fun. Further, his rap dispute, as a type of social relief valve, is also interesting: men and women fighting with words, trying to defeat the weakest. Music as a weapon! I do not follow the work of Eminem, but his performance has also surprised me: his cool character is great. All the cast performs an excellent acting. I myself like Brittany Murphy very much and Kim Basinger surprised me without any charming, as a drunken and looser mother. My vote is six.