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Mile High?
Today I have the first of three columns for this week. Direct from Toronto, we have our new friend Mark giving us his two cents on 8 Mile. It sounds like the winner I had predicted in my script review. Tomorrow, a script review of Johnny Depp's Takedown...
8 Mile Review
"Tonight I attended a screening of 8 Mile - also known as the 'Eminem Movie'. It was shown as a 'work in progress' (not fully completed in the editing room). It was the first time it was ever shown in front of an audience. You could expect with people like Sharon Stone, Dustin Hoffman, Jake Gyllenhall and Michael Douglas in attendance you might be distracted from the movie - but such wasn't the case.
8 Mile plays out a week in the life of a pre-famous rapper known as'Rabbit'. The movie provides us insight into Eminem's relationship with his mom played by Kim Basinger. We witness a relationship with a girlfriend that provided him with encouragement to fullfill his dreams and not give up. His struggle/desire to get out of the life that has surrounded him proves inspiration for the lyrics he jots down on his scraps of paper. We see a side to Eminem that definately is in contrast to the image that many have of him - including myself.
Kim Basinger wasn't afraid of not looking pretty for this role. Her character depended on the men in her life to give her a new life outside of her trailer park existence . Her only personal hope was the chance of winning at Bingo. The crowd really enjoyed the movie. Jake Gyllenhall, star of The Good Girl, told me he thought the movie was great. I kinda doubt Eminem will be nominated because: a) most academy members are of the older generation and likely don't respect him enough to give him such praise or will even go see the movie b) he's basically playing himself so they could think he's not really acting However - when the MTV Movie Awards come around - I'd think Eminem will have his chance to get some recognition for a job well done.
Lots has been said of lyrics promoting hatred towards homosexuals. During the movie, while a bunch of factory workers were in line at the lunch truck - some employees passed some time by rapping. One guy decided to take some shots towards a gay employee. It was 'Rabbit' that came to the gay guys defence and put down the other guy through a rap. This scene caused the audience to burst into applause. Whether in the movie for effect or whether based on an event in Eminem's history, that I do not know, but after watching this movie I'm willing to believe it to be true. I want to go back now to listen to Eminem's music. I want to reconsider what the lyrics truly say. Is Eminem's fame and success based on promoting hatred and violence? Or is he just a guy wanting to be heard - trying to vent his frustrations about society that he shares with millions of fans?"
(Review submitted by Mark Greeno. Please check out his Yahoo Club.)
Greatness and Foolishness
If you take a quick look at this weekend's box-office you can see two different stories:
- Swimfan $12.4M
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding $10.6M
- City By The Sea $9.1M
- Signs $8.0M
- xXx $5.5M
First, the number one movie in North-America is Swimfan. September is one of those months, where I am sometime ashamed to be a movie fan. How can a piece of trash film make so much money? Are we, the movie fans, stupid enough to reward such garbage? Next weekend looks even stranger with Barbershop and Stealing Harvard coming out. Hopefully one of those will knock out Swimfan. Still, we're not talking Oscar-caliber material (Maybe not even the MTV Movie Awards) with these two films. Good job to Fox for making all of their money back in the first weekend. Swimfan only cost $10 million to make but that's $10M I would have rather liked to be put elsewhere.
The other side of the coin is the surprise hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Not since The Sixth Sense has such a movie had a continuing success (not dropping after the first weekend) at the box office. The word of mouth keeps the popular comedy from sinking lower into the top ten. This week it will pass the $100 million barrier. It's on pace to become the biggest independent film of all-time surpassing 1999's The Blair Witch Project. That is a miracle. In today's marketplace a $90 million Eddie Murphy comedy can't make $10 million domestically but a small time $5 million well-written comedy is ten times more popular. It's for moments like these that I'm proud to be a fan of North American cinema.
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
