After just a few years in the spotlight, Eminem has accomplished something Elvis, Madonna, Michael and Mariah have not: He’s made a great movie.

The multiplatinum rapper’s debut “8 Mile,” a semi-autobiographical account of his struggles to be heard while growing up on the streets of Detroit, is the rare pop star vehicle that utterly succeeds. It captures the aura of a specific time and place, populates it with believable characters and delivers compelling emotional drama.

The structure of the movie is nothing new — it follows a similar thread to “Rocky,” the recent “Blue Crush” and dozens of other inspirational tales of blue-collar perseverance. It’s not the pieces of this puzzle that are unique, but the eventual picture they create.

“8 Mile” has the kind of palpable authenticity that few Hollywood films ever muster. Most of it was shot in and around the “313” neighborhoods of Detroit where Eminem grew up, and the sprawling urban blight almost becomes a character itself.

The 30-year-old wordsmith plays Jimmy “Rabbit” Smith Jr. When not spending his days working at a factory that molds auto bumpers, Jimmy hones his reputation as something of a rapping genius among his friends. But when his pal Future (Mekhi Phifer) recruits him to compete in one of the weekly improvised face-offs he hosts at a local venue, Jimmy freezes as the crowd drowns him out with shouts of “choke.”

Flanked by a trailer park mom (Kim Basinger, commendably portraying a character her own age), a new girlfriend Alex (Brittany Murphy) and a host of colorful friends and enemies, Jimmy gets a chance to redeem himself … and maybe to grow up a little in the process.

“8 Mile” is wisely set in 1995, before hip-hop had been so marginalized by the mainstream. The movie places viewers into a fascinatingly insular setting at a time when the musical style ranked up there with the NBA as the primary pipe dream for urban youths hoping to escape their environment.

The best scenes concern battles in underground clubs that are like gladiator matches where language is the sole weapon. Dueling contestants have 45 seconds to take their turn hurling abusive rhymes at each other, with a boisterous audience judging the winner.

Eminem plays a rapper who uses his skills to try to escape from an impoverished Detroit neighborhood in 8

This all leads to a remarkable showdown as Jimmy takes on a rival crew in a verbal death match. His rather ingenious strategy for turning the tables on defending champ Papa Doc (Anthony Mackie) supports the theory that hip-hop is more of a class thing than a race thing.

Even those put off by rap music will be mesmerized with Eminem’s linguistic skill in the finale. It illustrates why the artist has been able to sell a staggering 30 million records in the span of only four years.

Curtis Hanson, the Oscar-winning filmmaker of such standouts as “L.A. Confidential” and “Wonder Boys,” obviously saw the innate drama in Eminem’s story, and he puts his considerable cinematic talent to full advantage. Hanson’s work with a novice lead actor offers a lesson in how important a director’s role is in shaping a film.

Eminem appears in almost every scene of the movie, yet his dialogue is cautiously kept to a minimum. Hanson has all the other characters deliver any lengthy monologues or comic punch lines. Except when the laconic Eminem is freestyling, he rarely strings more than a sentence together.

The St. Joseph, Mo.-born entertainer is not an “actor,” but due to Hanson’s guidance and a great script (by Scott Silver), he efficiently carries the picture. Of course, whether he can play anything beyond this innate character remains to be seen.

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While the moments of wordplay are so clever that they never get old (Eminem’s impromptu rap to the sounds of “Sweet Home Alabama” coming from a nearby trailer is a classic), some of the other elements don’t hold up as well. A sex scene between Jimmy and Alex goes on forever. And while the violence is less destructive than in most movies set in the ‘hood, there are far too many fistfights. Eminem is constantly assaulting someone, being assaulted or trying to break up an assault between other people. After the fourth or fifth time, it becomes a nuisance.

But these are minor quibbles for a project that gets so many things right — especially considering it’s part of a genre that usually heralds the downfall of a singing superstar.

Anybody remember Vanilla Ice’s breakthrough movie “Cool as Ice?”