# 8 Best Film of 2002. Now on DVD.
Curtis Hansen’s bleak film about hip-hop rapper and street poet, Jimmy Smith Jr. (Eminem), is a more raw and in your face film about life on the wrong side of the tracks than the 1970’s film Saturday Night Fever. Jimmy knows he is better than what his environment and upbringing tell him he is. He knows he is talented; he feels that what he writes is special; he senses in his soul that he needs to break free from the cage that is 8 Mile. But he struggles with confidence. This film shows how Jimmy gets his confidence.
8 Mile is noteworthy for its depiction of the poor side of Detroit, known as 8 mile, and the poor people who try to live and survive there. 8 Mile is unique for its portrayal of hip-hop/rap from the ghettos, showing us an underworld where musicians fight in the form of words and rhyme in front of rabid (yet keen and well-behaved) fans. Moreover, Hansen shows us intriguing characters that are stuck in lives they never asked for—victims of circumstance. He also shows to what ends these people do to get out of 8 mile. Kim Bassinger is great as Jimmy’s depressed and shattered mom. Eminem is utterly convincing as the young brooding Jimmy Smith, Jr.
Rated R for language, violence, and sexual situations.
