8 Mile C/D

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Let's talk about the movie, not the album or song. I saw it last night & enjoyed it, but mostly because the final sequence was so powerful. The lack of plot made the first 2/3 pretty hot-or-miss, at times I got tired of watching Em drive around in that beat-up car. I also thought Kim Basinger was terrible, very poor casting that took you out of the movie. Every time whe was on screen you think, "There's Kim Basinger." They should have cast someone more anonymous. But the battle scenes were so good I enjoyed it.

The movie also adds some interesting wrinkles to the Emimem persona. The final battle sort of explained his carreer as we know it -- the idea that he beats all of his critics to the punch by talking about how fucked up he is before anyone else has a chance. That's kind of a punk idea, right, that you hurt yourself before anyone else has a chance to, so you remain in control of the pain?

Anyway, curious to hear your thoughts -- I know it's a movie, but come on, it's more ILM than ILE.

― Mark (MarkR), Sunday, 1 December 2002 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

the sex scene in that flick is the most horrendous thing of all time. i went to that movie with my MOM (53), my brother (20), and a young southern baptist girl (18). The scene wouldn't stop! for like three minutes, they get their screw on, and it was just so random and in your face. bleck.

i totally agree that the last scene was killer, and it might even be worth sitting through the rest of the movie for. the one scene that got me though was when "B. Rabbit" was flowin' over "Sweet Home Alabama." I can't figure out why, but that whole thing made me squirm in my chair.

― Brock K. (Brock K.), Sunday, 1 December 2002 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, the whole plot mechanism works so that, let's see, he basically has to ditch his friends and get a good job & work hard *by himself* in order to make it ! So get to the factory on time & D.I.Y. and you too can be a rap star. (What!!?)

I mean, the film really seemed to distance him from a lot of the ideas I had about hip-hop, and maybe I have stupid ideas about hip-hop, but Em's way of trashing himself onstage & ignoring the rules of the battle (going on way after the beat ends) & purposefully alienating himself from any sort of larger community in order to succeed, it all seems backwards. After all he's just a nice hard-working blue-collar guy & if only all those other kids would stop hanging out at the clubs and go to the factories (there are, of course, enough jobs/opportunities for everyone in greater Detroit) too, everything would be so much better. argh. Something's not right.

― daria g, Sunday, 1 December 2002 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

"for like three minutes, they get their screw on, and it was just so random and in your face."

Get Ur Screw On is my new favourite phrase.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 1 December 2002 23:05 (twenty-two years ago)

But Daria I think he knew he was different & that he would never fit completely into the scene he was part of (& not just b/c he was white). So I thought it made sense that he was trying to carve out his own thing. & it seemed like the film implied that, probably more than just working hard, he had more talent than anyone else around him. So I think it implied that "making it" required more than just the shoulder to the wheel -- maybe something more about reaching your own potential.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 2 December 2002 03:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Haven't seen the film yet, but will probably rent it next year. Mostly because my Grandma lives just off 8 Mile, and so my Mom grew up in the 60's there, and we used to visit a lot when we were growing up. I want to see how the grimness is portrayed.

― marianna, Monday, 2 December 2002 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought this was like the #1 movie & the world starring the #1 pop star.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 2 December 2002 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I like funny Eminem more than serious Eminem. There was enough funny Eminem in the movie.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Monday, 2 December 2002 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

WASN'T enough, I mean. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Monday, 2 December 2002 21:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Great long sex scene, though I wish he'd used a condom. Anyway, it was pretty emphatic, and as I suggested when we started talking about this movie before --

Is 8 Mile the Purple Rain of the Aughties?

-- I think the girl is himself in drag.

Like I said, it's a wishful psychobiography. He deals with something resembling his real life, but lets things come out his way, or in ways that flatter him, like a good dream.

Examples? Unlike his girl, Rabbit does not pimp himself to Dr. Dre, I mean his gangster wannabe friend, to get ahead. He is tender to his cute daughter, I mean sister, who shows up to elicit sympathy for Rabbit and then disappears before she does what any real kid does: get in the way (she sees Rabbit get beat up and then... goes to sleep?).

When he burns down an abandoned house with his friends, they do it for fun, I mean to protect little girls like his daughter, I mean sister, whatever she is. He gets beat up by bullies, I mean gangsters, I mean he beats up the gangsters then gets beat up himself when he's outnumbered, so he pulls a gun, I mean tells his friend to put the gun away. He also hates and fears gay men, I mean he's friends with a gay man.

Like Purple Rain, there's a lot of truth in this myth, and there's a rousing ending. It could have used something as good as the motorcycle/lake scene, though. I once brought a girl from Las Vegas to "baptize" herself naked in the waters of Lake Minnetonka after an all-night party at Paisley Park. I somehow doubt anyone's going to be fucking in a car factory to be like Eminem.

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 3 December 2002 20:11 (twenty-two years ago)

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