All movies8 Mile

Rated:

R (strong language, some violence, drug use)

Running time:

2:06 minutes

Release date:

March 10, 2005

Capsule review:

Every artistic form has dilettantes, and rap music is no different. Anyone remember a media confection named Vanilla Ice? So even if you can question the specifics of Marshall Mathers' trailer-park childhood, as the rapper Eminem he tends to make all argument academic. Truth is, the kid performs with power. He does the same in this Curtis Hanson film, which is said to reflect - though not capture exactly - his actual history. Eminem is B-Rabbit, a troubled kid caught up in one blue-collar job after another, who dreams of being a famous rapper. Yet he lacks confidence, and who wouldn't what with a mother (Kim Basinger) who lives on welfare, girlfriends who either lie to him about being pregnant (Taryn Manning) or who will get intimate with someone else to get ahead in the world (Brittany Murphy) and friends who are interested only in money and the women that such fame and fortune will attract? But B-Rabbit perseveres, and ... well, if you've seen the original "Karate Kid," you can guess the rest. Hanson, who directed ``L.A. Confidential,'' knows his way around a camera, Basinger is appropriately trashy and Mekhi Pfifer is solid as B-Rabbit's only real fan. But this movie sinks or floats on the back of Eminem, and while the kid may be able to do only one stroke, he sure can swim.