8 Mile

Eminem makes his big screen debut in this better than expected but still fiercely conventional coming of age drama. The erstwhile Slim Shady plays Jimmy Smith Jr aka Rabbit, a young man working in a Detroit metal sheeting factory who dreams of rap stardom.

When we first meet him, he's preparing to prove himself in a freestyle contest at a dilapidated venue called The Shelter. However, he chokes under the pressure and returns to his humdrum everyday existence of his minimum wage job and his equally depressing home life with his trailer trash mother (Kim Basinger, looking remarkably foxy for someone who is supposed to a booze hound). But things start to happen for Rabbit and he's got to face down his demons or else let the opportunity of a lifetime slip by.

Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it? Although it's apparently based on the rapper's own upbringing, 8 Mile rigidly follows the formula of the coming of age drama. Indeed, in terms of narrative dimension and scope, 8 Mile doesn't offer anything new to the viewer. Where it comes alive is with the incendiary rap sequences, often moments of high comedy, and Hanson's crisp, unfussy direction. Eminen's not bad, he's a ball of barely controlled fury for most of the film, but one wonders if he was actually acting at all.