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100Transcends its star's controversial career and, in the bargain, stands head, shoulders and heart above every other Hollywood movie that we've seen so far this year.
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91Movie stars radiate a power -- physical, erotic, spiritual -- that draws an audience into their orbit. Yet watching Curtis Hanson's gritty and electrifying 8 Mile, the first thing you notice about Eminem, the most scaldingly powerful artist in pop music today, is how vulnerable he looks.
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90What it's really about is the euphoria that talent can bring to those who are possessed by it. That euphoria lights up the screen.
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90Eminem plays Rabbit with riveting, flamboyantly expressive intensity.
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90The film's absolute conviction keeps it from feeling formulaic.
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90The film is never more real than when Jimmy unloads his anger on someone close to him, a frequent occurrence. Eminem is an actor with a rare gift for rage, and movie careers, even big ones, have been built on less.
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90There's something old-fashioned and dauntless about the way the film pushes past our initial resistance to its setting and subject matter, past pain, past defeat, to make this point. Because it rejects easy victories, this may be one of the few inspirational movies that could actually inspire someone, somewhere, sometime.
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90The rough power, as well as the humor and sensitivity, of pop phenom Eminem is delivered intact in 8 Mile.
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90This is about the rise of a pop star, plain and simple. The real deal –- and the movie's greatest fun –- is in the rap contests.
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88The rap sequences are shot and edited with the excitement of a crisply broadcast sporting event, which in a way they are.
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88Some movies, a very few, possess the purity of myth, and they don't have to be great to be greatly important. "The Wild One" is an example; "Saturday Night Fever" is another. Now add 8 Mile to that short list.
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83It captures the excitement of a breaking star, it generates a raw and unsettling emotional power and it honors the aesthetic of hip-hop in way that's never quite been done on film before.
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80Can Eminem act? Who knows? But his star turn in 8 Mile -- is memorable -- even if we've seen it all before.
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80The star's the thing, the only thing, and he's brilliant at playing a thinly veiled version of himself.
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80It’s too early to place Eminem alongside those Hollywood giants (Jimmy Cagney/John Garfield), but the promise is there. He understands the power of being still in front of a camera. Compact, volatile and burningly intense, he’s got charisma to spare.
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80There are a lot of stale -- and nefarious -- clichés in 8 Mile, but most of the time they're overwhelmed by the pulsing, grinding, hopped-up camerawork and the soulful star turn of Eminem.
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80Eminem does not come off as a megalomaniac in 8 Mile, but he expects people to be very, very impressed. I doubt he could lend himself to a fiction that said anything else: his eyes couldn't tell any story but his own. [11 November 2002, p. 195]
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80Hanson's rendition is so engulfing that, for this middle-class white man at any rate, the moment after the film finished was like a return to familiar country.
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80The movie has some of the braggadocio of its white-trash hero, building to its competitive climax as if it were a gladiatorial sporting event, and it carried me all the way.
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75Eminem survives the X-ray truth-telling of the movie camera, which is so good at spotting phonies. He is on the level.
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75Flaws and all, it really does show a star being born.
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75There is some exhilarating wordplay in 8 Mile, and you don't have to be a fan of rap to appreciate its quicksilver energy and mischievous wit. For all its grit, 8 Mile ends up radiating a joyful, hopeful vibe. It's an old-school charmer.
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75Basinger gives one of her best performances as a woman too young, poor and overwhelmed to handle motherhood. And the uncommonly self-assured Murphy proves again that she is a cut above other actresses of her tender years.
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75What makes 8 Mile transcend the formulaic nature of its plot is the way it makes these rap competitions compelling even for those unfamiliar with rap music, and its scrupulous, loving rendition of a grim, wintry Detroit circa 1995.
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75The real drama -- and poetry -- in 8 Mile are in those fiery face-offs, the hip-hop battles, as Jimmy rat-tat-tats his rap in deft flashes of spontaneous combustion.
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75A "Rocky"-like tale of determination and long odds that will appeal even to those who are turned off by most rap music.
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75A hip-hop cousin of Prince's ''Purple Rain,'' which had braver fashion sense and better original songs.
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75As is usually the case with a well made sports movie, you don't have to appreciate the particular sport in order to enjoy the movie. 8 Mile has not been made solely with fans of hip-hop music in mind.
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70Extremely clever in its use of self-deprecation, it's guaranteed to bring down the house at any remotely sympathetic venue.
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70What Mr. Hanson has done with 8 Mile is make a pop movie instead of a movie about pop. There's nothing disreputable about this.
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70There's no doubt that Eminem has the talent and presence of a star. It's just a shame that the filmmakers didn't capture his power with mad skillz of their own.
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67While the urban texture and the unapologetic work of Basinger impart a sophisticated air to what is essentially a downtrodden-teen-makes-good film, that is, finally, just what 8 Mile is. That's not a bad thing, but it's nothing to rap home about, either.
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63A star is born in 8 Mile, all right, but his name is Mekhi Phifer.
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63The loosely autobiographical 8 Mile, an uneven but watchable drama about life in Detroit's slums, begins the shrewd transformation of vitriolic rapper Eminem into a mainstream figure.
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50Pop-music biopics have a great history, but 8 Mile is for Eminem fans only. They're sure to make it a huge, huge hit.
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50What's most disappointing is the thoroughly cliched story.
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50But even a rapper needs to punch things up a bit, and 8 Mile, for all its hip-hop braggadocio, is a pretty weak riff.
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40The film has brief flashes of believability and humor. By and large, though, the script is uninspired, the picture's characters are stick figures, its dialogue is lackluster and the star's performance seldom rises above the adequate.