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Eminem is out ‘n’ about

Eminem beats the critical rap in film debut
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TORONTO รณ Just as John Travolta owned the disco floor with his slick moves in Saturday Night Fever, Eminem dazzles with his tongue-torturing rhymes in 8 Mile, the highly anticipated movie debut of the controversial rap star.
At the Toronto International Film Festival, Sunday’s first public screening of the gritty hip-hop trip through the dreams and despair of a trailer-park factory worker who competes in freestyle contests proved to be one of the hottest tickets among the 265 features. The real Slim Shady, however, was not at the festival, which ends Saturday; he was in Detroit on the last night of his Anger Management Tour.
Among the throngs who arrived as skeptics and left as believers in the Detroit-area chart-topper’s acting skills were old-school artists Dustin Hoffman and his Tootsie director, Sydney Pollack.
Introducing his drama filled with violent outbursts as well as profane humor, director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential) explained the print was unfinished although “the picture being a little raw is not inappropriate.”
The audience broke into applause after several rounds of insult-laced street poetry and gasped with laughter when Kim Basinger, as Eminem’s bingo-playing mama, shares a raunchy revelation.
Not surprisingly, the rapper, whose lyrics have been laced with violence against women and homophobia, has undergone some image revisionism. His screen alter ego Jimmy Smith Jr., aka Rabbit, tenderly protects his toddler sister and stands up for a gay co-worker.
Afterward, Hanson said he hopes 8 Mile shows “what kids have to go through today” and allows non-fans to leave “with a better appreciation for rap.” The film opens nationwide Nov. 8.