WhatzUp

8 Mile
by Derek Neff

I sorely wish Eminem had decided to perform his song “Lose Yourself” at the Academy Awards last week. The song, which appears in the movie 8 Mile, is the most robust and profanely honest song to be nominated for Best Song in years. Apparently it’s the “profane” part that the Academy had a problem with; Enimen refused to tone down the lyrics for the Oscar broadcast and was consequently a no-show. And then, in one of several big surprises that evening, he won the Oscar anyway.

8 Mile tells the story of fictional rapper Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith, although it’s presumably a thinly-veiled biography of Eminem himself. Eminem stars as B-Rabbit, and on the acting front he acquits himself fairly well. B-Rabbit is an aspiring rap artist trying to make ends meet on the mean streets of Detroit. He and his buddies dream of making it big one day, but everyone seems to realize that it is B-Rabbit, and only B-Rabbit, who has any real chance of breaking through.

We see B-Rabbit carefully composing his lyrics at several points in the movie, but the only rap he performs on-screen is the kind of improvised rap that specializes in belittling the other guy. Following the disappointingly conventional format of sports movies, all of the events in 8 Mile culminate in a “battle” between Rabbit and his rivals, a gang known as the Free World.

Eminem’s strength as an actor runs counter to his strength as a lyricist. Where his lyrics are angry, incisive dramatic monologues, his acting is restrained and controlled. All of the emotions radiate from his eyes, and little else. The camera loves him, but he’s under-utilized here.

Rap is an art form that relies heavily on brash inventiveness, and yet the movie’s format is surprisingly linear and standard. Director Curtis Hanson (The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, L.A. Confidential) delivers a movie that looks great and sounds great and treats rapping as an art form with almost reverential awe. But the tone is all wrong. And the decision to confine the arc of B-Rabbit’s rise to fame and fortune to a night-club rapping contest is not a decision I would have made: how rap artists handle their fame and fortune is highly interesting, especially in Eminem’s career. But we never get to see B-Rabbit reach such heights here. Alas, his story ends just as it’s beginning.