Rent 8 Mile (2002)

A genuinely moving, ever-hopeful & brilliantly acted story of redemption & allowing talent to soar - 8 Mile review by TB

In so many ways, 8 Mile shouldn't work. The rags-to-riches/redemption story, using the medium of music or sport in particular, have been done so many times before, in so many different ways. Whilst you have the classics such as Rocky, movies following this arc are ten-a-penny, with many of them clichéd-riddled & trite. Also, as much as this movie is based loosely on Eminem's/Marshall Mathers's life growing up in Detroit, normally casting the actual person as the protagonist, especially when they aren't a trained actor but known for something else, leads to screams of nepotism & results in a terrible movie.

But 8 Mile is, to quote one enthusiastic review "the rap Rocky." It is a sensational, brilliant & deeply hopeful story about friendship, family & the belief in yourself to change your life. And at the center of this is a lead performance which has everything you could possibly want, and more.

Jimmy "Rabbit" is a young Detroit man whose life is in a downward spiral: he comes from a broken home, with a depressed mom who throws herself at any man who shows her attention, often neglecting Jimmy's young sister; he has just broken up with his girlfriend who allegedly is pregnant in order to keep his car; he barely scrapes a living doing menial "blue-collar" work and like so many others, is just trying to find a way out of the grinding poverty he exists in. But Jimmy also has an incredible skill for rap, an integral part of the Detroit community identity. Actively encouraged by his many friends, Jimmy looks to win the weekly rap battles & gain recognition.

One of the best parts of this film for me is how authentic it is. Every single person, from Jimmy to his coworkers, feels real. The millions of films where there are the stock characters who are just in the background & contribute nothing to the narrative are nowhere to be seen. Partly this is due to shooting on location in Michigan, but also the hiring of local people for these roles. It is a sad but true fact that, with the levels of depravity in that US state, you would simply point the camera & shoot what is in front of you, with very little set design needed.

But this realness also seeps into the relationships you see, mainly around Jimmy's wide variety of friends of all races. There is a real community strength on screen, as well as an honest look at friendships which are tested to breaking point but never crumble. And there is the feeling of hope which runs through the entire narrative: these people may be in poverty, but they are not broken. There are no easy answers but there is also the belief in themselves & their town.

And leading all this is Eminem & his incredible debut. All of the brash, Slim Shady arrogance is nowhere to be seen. Instead, we have an incredibly nuanced, completely open & vulnerable performance, with a character we start rooting for from the opening credits. Jimmy is who we would like to think we could be in that situation: loyal, strong, caring & never beaten, no matter what horrors are thrown our way. And it staggers me that, 22 years later, we haven't had another film for him to show his incredible talent for acting (I'm not talking about cameos in things like The Interview.)

I loved this film. It is an authentic, real & heartfelt look at people who graft, struggle & believe in themselves & their friends. From the opening shots to the final showdown, it is brilliant.