Curtis Hanson's '8 Mile' premieres — Eminem's screen debut

Why it matters

8 Mile premiered November 8, 2002. Curtis Hanson directed (he had also done LA Confidential five years earlier). Eminem stars as Jimmy Smith Jr., a young white Detroit rapper trying to break into the city's underground battle-rap scene. Mekhi Phifer plays his best friend Future. Brittany Murphy plays his love interest. Kim Basinger plays his mother. The film is loosely autobiographical (Hanson made clear it was not a strict adaptation of Em's life). The closing-act sequence is a series of battle-rap rounds at a Detroit club called The Shelter, with Em as the underdog working his way through several real-life battle MCs (including a long climactic round against Anthony Mackie's character, Papa Doc). The battle scenes were partly improvised. The film grossed over $240 million worldwide on a $41 million budget. It is also one of the very few major-studio films about hip-hop directed and edited with the rhythmic precision of a film actually trying to understand the form. You should watch it. The Shelter sequence at the end is still one of the best rap-on-screen moments ever filmed.