8 Mile

Eminem's surprisingly uncontroversial biopic paints an unexpected portrait of the loudest bigmouth on the planet: 'Rabbit' (Eminem's alter ego) is a quiet, selfconscious loner wandering the ugliest neighborhoods of Detroit, desperate to escape the garbage heap that's his trailerpark life. It's no self-idolizing, romanticized thug life (he's no gangsta), but bleak social realism, the kind of poverty and squalidness not considered marketable. This is best felt when 'Rabbit' visits a glitzy recording studio, which looks like a different planet from the film's perspective. There isn't much plot to speak of, but '8 Mile' says one thing and says it well.