Review: Elvis

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Director Baz Lurhmann is back with a sprawling biopic about the legendary Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) as told through the eyes of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks)

I attempted to see this movie in theaters several times throughout the summer and every plan fell through. Thankfully it's now streaming on HBO Max, so it made for an easy viewing. (and no theater money wasted)

I like Baz's style, but I don't always love his movies. Moulin Rouge! is the only one I absolutely love, but when I heard he was directing this, I thought it was the perfect fit. However, the finished product is quite muddled. It's held together by a very strong lead performance by Butler, but it's very chaotic and messy.

Having Parker be the narrator on paper sounds fine, but Hanks is so over the top it became very distracting. It's like he was in a completely different movie than everyone else. Thankfully, it's not all bad. I liked that the film didn't shy away from how much Elvis took from the black community. BB King (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) at one point tells him that if he recorded a song another artist was singing, he'd made millions. That's essentially what Elvis did. It's not taking away from his talents, just stating the facts. I also loved the costume design, but in keeping with the messy theme, some of the wigs were tragic. Especially anything they put on poor Olivia DeJonge's head for her part as Pricilla.

Butler is the clear star here. I wasn't sure about him at first, but he gives a very captivating performance, especially when he's performing Elvis' songs. It's his own singing voice for most of it, and as Elvis aged, they made the choice to mix his voice with Elvis' recordings.

So is this for you? If you're a fan of The King, Lurhmann, or anyone involved, it's worth an HBO max watch. Though maybe not a full price theater ticket.

Grade: C+

Comments

  1. thevoid99September 12, 2022 at 3:36 PM

    I found out this past weekend that it's on HBO right now but I'm not in a rush to see it but I will eventually out of respect for Baz Luhrmann. Plus, I just heard Sofia Coppola is going to do a bio-pic on Priscilla Presley with Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla and Jacob Elordi as Elvis. She thought about having Justin Bieber as Elvis... ugh... that would've been awful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 12, 2022 at 3:48 PM

      Elodri as Elvis will be interesting! This one glossed over how young she was when Elvis dated her.

      Delete
  2. BirgitSeptember 13, 2022 at 1:14 PM

    I like Tom Hanks but he can go over the top like when he outed his teacher at his Oscar Acceptance speech, his Forrest Gump and when he said he should not have done the role of the gay lawyer. Ughh...it's called acting

    ReplyDelete
  3. RuthSeptember 18, 2022 at 9:31 PM

    I think my fave Baz Luhrmann's film remains to be Moulin Rouge! which I've rewatched several times. This one is just too haphazard and overly-stylized, but man, Austin Butler is so fantastic here that he saved the movie for me.

    ReplyDelete

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