8 Mile (2002)

I was about eight when I first heard of Eminem and fell in love with his music. I didn't understand the lyrics as I didn't speak English at the time, but I loved them nevertheless. So I was pretty excited when 8 Mile aired on TV a year later —no way my parents would bring me to see this. Also, I doubt my tiny town showed this— and I loved it. I rewatched it many times over the years, I rewatched it now and I still love it. 

Set in 1995 Detroit, the story follows Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. (Eminem), a young, unhappy white blue-collar worker who, after breaking up with his girlfriend (Taryn Manning), returns to his mother's (Kim Basinger) trailer park home and her young boyfriend (Michael Shannon). While struggling in every single aspect of his life, he tries to make a name for himself in the African-American dominated underworld hip-hop world. 

There's no secret that this is a loose adaptation of Eminem's rise from the ghetto of Detroit as there are many parallels between the rapper's roots and aspirations and that of Jimmy. That said, it's still a fictional story, an interesting, compelling and rather inspirational one about dreams and hard work and not settling for what you can have because it's easier but fight for what you want. It still has its flaws as it's pretty formulaic and predictable and the romantic subplot involving Brittany Murphy doesn't really go anywhere, but overall it's gripping and enjoyable. 

The characters, on the other hand, are a bit of a letdown. In fact, while Jimmy is decently written and comes across as a decent, regular guy who is trying to survive and make his dream come true, and his alcoholic, miserable and abusive mother, Stephanie, has more humanity and likeability than expected and their crumbling relationship is quite compelling, the rest of the characters are one-dimensional stereotypes with no development whatsoever —the member of the rival gang led by Anthony Mackie's Papa Doc are completely devoid of personality. Brittany Murphy's Alex does have a bit more dimension and depth but the way they developed the character is awful. Also, it makes no sense for Jimmy's ex-girlfriend, Janeane, to be in the film.

Universal Pictures

As for the performances, Kim Basinger gives a solid performance as the white trash mother, and Michael Shannon kind of steals the show as Stephenie's lazy boyfriend, but the standout, believe it or not, is Eminem. While it's not an Oscar-worthy performance as he's basically playing a fictionalized version of himself, he gives the character depth and complexity and makes him likeable.

L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson does a nice job as he infuses the film with a gritty, dark atmosphere and the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto enhances it and gives the film more authenticity. The soundtrack, which includes Oscar-winning "Lose Yourself", is fantastic —but of course, you have to like the genre to enjoy it.

IO (2019)

You know what I've been seeing for the past week or so as soon as I opened Netflix? The trailer of IO, their new post-apocalyptic movie. Worn out by its continuous playing and because Anthony Mackie is in it, I decided to give it a shot. How bad could it be, right? A lot, as it turned out. 

The film follows Sam Walden (Margaret Qualley), a young scientist as well as one of the last people on a post-cataclysm Earth who is dedicated to finding a way to save the planet and for humans to adapt and survive on it. Time is not on her side though as the final shuttle is about to depart and she only has a few days to make a meaningful scientific outbreak discovery or stay on the dying planet. That's when another survivor, Micah (Anthony Mackie), shows up and tries to convince her to leave.

If you add many scientific inaccuracies, plot holes, unnecessary things and no explanation whatsoever to what happened to Earth, why it has become uninhabitable —it's not a surprise though, considering how we are treating our planet— you get the entire plot of IO, which, I'm sure I don't need to tell you, is far from being compelling. The essence of the story isn't even terrible as it keeps reminding us how important human connection and relationships, not just with family or friends but humans in general, are important. The problem is that the filmmakers found the most unappealing and tedious way to do it. 

The characters are another big issue here. Considering that there are only two characters, Sam and Micah, one of which, Sam, has about half of the film all for herself, you would expect fleshed out characters. Well, I'm sorry to tell you but it does not happen in IO as the characters are flat, bland and uninspired, and their actions don't make a lot of sense —they both acknowledge what is going on but they don't act like it. Margaret Qualley and Anthony Mackie do exactly what you expect anything to do with such a poor script, they crumble. The script isn't the only problem though as they don't even try.

Netflix

To say that IO is a complete misfire would be wrong though. As a matter of fact, the visuals and scenery are pretty good looking, and the costumes are quite interesting.

Ultimately though, the film doesn't bring anything new to the table in terms of post-apocalypse, science fiction or romance. It's just a tremendously slowly paced film that you wish you never watched.