2002-11-10
8 Mile, posted at 7:08 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Just got back from 8 Mile. I liked it. It didn't blow me away, but I definitely enjoyed it. I wasn't bored and wasn't turned off by it. It was especially cool to see scenes from Detroit, a city I spent much of my formative youth in. The dilapidated buildings were exactly as I remembered them. Eminem did well. Curtis Hanson's direction was crisp and kept the fairly pedestrian story fresh. It dragged at a couple places, but not as bad as a film where the ending was already known could have.I had a few issues with it, as follows:
1. A character who actually has an education is mocked for not being "real" enough.
2. The film chooses to show Eminem's growth by his decision to stand alone, turning away from his loyal friends.
3. I think the film's beginning - in which Eminem freezes up and doesn't perform - would have been more effective if he had tried to perform and messed up.
4. When Brittany Murphy's character has sex with a would-be promoter, Eminem comes and beats up the promoter guy. Because Eminem is the hero of the film, we don't realize that he has no right to beat the guy up. She's his "girl" because they had a quickie hookup against a machine at the factory? Huh? The fact that the next scene features Eminem get jumped by six guys shows how much the film had to stretch to show E as the film's hero. He had it coming, though. What right did he have to beat the guy up? None at all. Perhaps if the relationship had been developed between Brittany Murphy and Em more, there would have been some reason there. But there wasn't.
5. Every female character except for Vanessa at the factory and Em's 5-year old sister use sex as a way to get ahead.
6. I think the film Slam did a better job of showing how inner rage can be transformed to rap or poetry. This should have been 8 Mile's strength, but it paled in comparison to that film.
Things I liked:
1. That scene with Vanessa at the factory was pretty damn cool.
2. Eminem's perpetual scowl, used to good effect.
3. The Rocky-esque finale, which showed the film's character using words as weapons.
4. Mekhi Phifer's performance.
5. Even though I hated her character, Brittany Murphy was perfect in her role. There were a few times that I thought Kim Basinger sounded stiff, but she always came around, and I realized that her performance was quite good - very un-actory.
6. Of course, the music.
7. Scenes that did a good job of portraying Eminem's writing process.
8. The sex scene was quite good - one of the best I'd seen in a film in a while. Very real, not glamorized.
Overall, a decent film.
9. The fact that one of the characters went to Cranbrook, which is where my good friend Jake works. He works in the museum part, not the school, but still... very cool to hear the shout-out. Even if it was to show that the character wasn't "real."
The other big weekend entertainment news was the worst episode of Saturday Night Live that I've seen in a while. That actress who wrote and starred in My Big Fat (Sucky) Greek Wedding was the host, and she was awful - never taking her eyes off the cue cards. I guess I just don't think she's a very talented person at all. Her humor all seems to be of the same stereotypical and sitcom-ish vein that the movie was full of.
I fell asleep even before my girlfriend Tina Fey came on with Weekend Update.
So I added a "Last 5" thing on the left there. And I figured it out all by myself. I'm getting a little tired of this layout, so I might switch again sometime. This one just isn't bright enough for me, nor is it easy enough to read. Plus, I'm more of a blue guy, not a lime green guy. I wish I had a good photo of Baltimore to use, something like Mobtown uses. I love her layout as well - so clean and easy to read. Anyhow, maybe something will inspire me soon in that area.