March 17, 2003

Movie Reviews (short version)

While my 100 movies project is still on my list of longterm goals, I'm going to give myself permission to give shorter reviews of other flicks I see that aren't necessarily classics. Maybe I'll compile a bunch of them into one page. Here are two Sooz and I watched the last couple of days.

8 Mile. Directed by Curtis Hanson. Starring Eminem, Kim Basinger, Mekhi Pipher and Brittany Murphy. I wasn't sure what to expect of this; I like his music well enough, but the whole rapper-as-actor thing has been done to death, and Eminem has never really inspired me as a person. Oh, well. Considering the movie is basically a retelling of Eminem's early life (a poor white rapper trying to break into the world of big-time hiphop), he does a remarkable job of acting. The interplay between his crew and their enemies, the friction with his ineffectual mom and beloved little sister, and the way he negotiates the hostile rap battles are all given equal time and really flesh out what turns out to be an interesting character study. And the rap battle scenes are fantastic. So is the soundtrack; "Lose Yourself" is one of the great songs of this decade. I will not argue about this. So 8 Mile is definitely worth a look.

The Banger Sisters. Directed by Bob Dolman. Starring Goldie Hawn, Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush. This movie was fun. Suzette and Vinnie (Goldie and Susan, respectively) were major groupies (like Goldie's daughter in Almost Famous) in the 60's; now Suzette's still bumming around and goes to visit Vinnie to float her a loan. But in the 20 years since they parted, Vinnie has become Lavinia, a calcified Republican housewife in the world's most Stepfordian family. While Suzette tries to break screenwriter/schmo Rush back from his downward spiral, she also manages to rekindle the 60s spirit in Lavinia. The results are fairly predictable, but you'll have fun along the way. And Geoffrey Rush as the putz is a role not to be missed.

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