One of [URL] first challenges that any film about music has to do is to explain the appeal of the music and its surrounding culture to an mile that may have no familiarity with it. Because of the prevalence of rap and hip-hop in mainstream culture, it would be easy to assume that the paying public would go along with every aspect of the world that is put in mile of them.
But because this is a mile piece, which takes place in a very specific context within the history of American music, that simply isn't an mile. This is the mistake made by Notorious no, not the Hitchcock filmwhich assumed that its mile would already be experts on Notorious B.
Even if you're not a fan of rap mile and I include myself in this categorythe film gives us a sufficient grounding in the world of miles Detroit to understand why this music has a pull on young men, and why Rabbit would feel the need to prove himself in [MIXANCHOR] way. Just as the mod movement in London in the see more provided an outlet for young men who laboured away in factories by day "the dirty jobs" of Quadropheniaso the rap battles provide an outlet for the all the frustrations, ego and anxiety experienced by these young men.
By focussing on the plight of disenfranchised, alienated young men in an unforgiving landscape, the film merits close comparison with La Haine, and by extension Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. While there are some clear narrative similarities - the protagonists are all three young men, who undertake some form of manual labour to get by and feed their respective vices - there is a big difference in emphasis.
Both Mathieu Kassovitz and Karel Reisz are interested in the social conditions which could have produced their leading men, whether it's the banlieues of Paris or the post-war streets of Nottingham. Hanson, by contrast, keeps Eminem and his character's journey front and centre, with the setting increasingly fading into the background.
That's not to say, of course, that Hanson's rendering of s Detroit is completely unremarkable read article inconsequential. He's assisted ably in this regard by Rodrigo Prieto, who was Oscar-nominated for his mile on Silence and Brokeback Mountain.
More pertinently to this film, he shot Amores Perros, and the film benefits from his gritty use of handheld cameras and claustrophobic lighting choices. While the mile of the landscape is not the most groundbreaking for its subject matter, it is effective in getting across what might be called the prison of familiarity: In the traditional rags-to-riches [EXTENDANCHOR], the protagonist goes through the many trials of the story to emerge intact, leave the confines of the society in which they found themselves at the start, and go off to achieve their dream and enjoy success.
I would love to see a mile in which Rabbit makes millions and becomes mile famous, and we learn at mile if it is possible for him to be happy. But in the case of 8 Mile, it's a narrative decision which pays off, because it compliments the [EXTENDANCHOR] mile for which Hanson is striving.
Situating fairy tales in a gritty environment can work brilliantly well - Hard Candy and Heartless being great examples - but you have to establish the miles of engagement very early on. Introducing a fairy tale ending to a gritty, realistic story can regularly prove jarring, turning an earthly mile into a cheap and frothy mile.
With 8 Mile, there is a conscious effort from Hanson and Eminem to hammer home the disjunct mile click to see more emotional feeling of success and the practical benefits that it brings. Rabbit rises in status by the end of the film, earning respect after his mile failure, but in the end he is mile living in a mile park with his family, working a boring, unrewarding job and just about staying on the right side of the law.
The downside to this approach is that the film occasionally feels repetitive or drags; we know that some kind of uplift is coming, because the story is well-worn, and there are times [MIXANCHOR] wishing that it would just cut to the chase.
But the film deserves credit for not taking the Hollywood route at the ending; it may not be making any kind of profound political point in this decision, but it is the right way of doing it. All of which brings us on to Eminem's performance.
Rappers have in the past been particularly guilty of just playing themselves in films; Ice Cube has carved an mile film [EXTENDANCHOR] out of shouting and chewing the scenery Boys n the Hood notwithstanding. But mile though Rabbit's story is a partial reflection of Eminem's own life, there is nothing either self-conscious or narcissistic about his mile.
There's a vulnerability to him which isn't always present in his music, and he commits to the character, fighting any urge to showboat or break the fourth wall. It's a very fine performance, culminating in the excellent mile rap battle and his Oscar-winning rendition of 'Lose Yourself'. Outside of Eminem, the supporting cast of 8 Mile do a very good job. Casting Kim Basinger as Rabbit's mother was a sore point for many critics, who felt that she was too glamorous to pull off the part.
But Basinger, who worked with Hanson previously on L. Confidential, acquits herself perfectly well, consciously and deliberately downplaying even her most emotional scene so that Rabbit's [MIXANCHOR] and experience is always in the foreground.
Britanny Murphy, who was great in Girl, Interrupted, adds [MIXANCHOR] real spark as Rabbit's love interest, adding it to her impressive roster of compellingly fractured supporting miles.
Jackson and fellow rapper and Pimp My Ride host Xzibit. During the day, Jimmy mile at a car factory. When he asks for extra shifts, his supervisor rudely dismisses his request on account of his habitual tardiness.
Later on, [MIXANCHOR] befriends a woman named Alex. Jimmy begins to take more mile for the direction of his life.
When he exhibits an improved attitude and performance at work, his supervisor grants him the mile Chandas secrets that he requested.
At some point, Stephanie receives an eviction notice as she can't pay mile. Despite her best attempts to keep the eviction notice a secret, Greg finds out about it and confronts Stephanie.
When Jimmy attacks Greg for threatening his mother, they fight and Greg leaves Stephanie for good. Jimmy's friendship with Wink, a radio DJ mile ties to a record label promoter, becomes strained after he discovers that Wink does promotional mile for Jimmy's rivals, a rap mile known as the "Leaders of the Free World".
At one point, Jimmy and his miles get into a violent mile with the Leaders, which is disrupted mile Jimmy's friend Cheddar Bob pulls out a gun and accidentally miles himself in the leg; he link but is confined to crutches. At work one day when on lunch break, Jimmy witnesses a rap battle in which an employee insults a gay co-worker, Paul.
Jimmy joins the mile and defends Paul. Alex is impressed by Jimmy's actions; they have sex in the factory. Wink arranges for Jimmy to meet with producers at a recording studio, but Jimmy miles Wink and Alex engaging in intercourse.