Directed by:
Baz LuhrmannCinematography:
Mandy WalkerComposer:
Elliott WheelerCast:
Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Richard Roxburgh, Helen Thomson, Dacre Montgomery, Luke Bracey, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Kodi Smit-McPhee, David Wenham (more)VOD (2)
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Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis explores the life and music of Elvis Presley, seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The story delves into the complex dynamic between Presley and Parker spanning over 20 years, from Presley’s rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. Central to that journey is one of the most significant and influential people in Elvis’s life, Priscilla Presley. (Warner Bros. US)
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Reviews (15)
A lavish and ornate ride. The film doesn't stop for a moment, it's bursting with ideas and, unlike The Great Gatsby, it's fully deserving of them all, because you expect exactly what Elvis gives you from a film that pays homage to the King. How timeless his music was is evidenced by probably the best original soundtrack I've ever heard, which puts Elvis's hits into the hands and throats of contemporary musicians who do whatever they want with them, and yet they're still absolutely great. Great joy... And as for Austin Butler, also a big surprise – I didn’t like him much in the trailers, but in the film he just needed a few minutes and he had me in the palm of his hand. And there were tears at the end, I just couldn't help it. Tom Hanks was also great, he shows what a versatile actor he is when given the chance. Great job. I have the urge to go to the cinema again like I did for Bohemian Rhapsody or the unjustly neglected Rocketman, although those films couldn't be more different.
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When Baz Luhrmann chose Elvis Presley as his new subject, it was clear that once again it would be a film that you had to see more than once. That’s exactly what happened. The result is brilliant. A great homage to classic great biopics with a fatal antagonist (in the style of Amadeus) and the splendor of a dying carnival world (American Horror Story: Freak Show or Nightmare Alley). Where are my DVDs of G. I. Blues, Blue Hawaii and Girls! Girls! Girls!? ;)
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In many ways this is a remarkable piece of work that shows its protagonist through the eyes of the antagonist, the music and the image of Elvis as a construct of the environment and the media, and also as the passion it held in one man, controlled like a puppet by every greedy little bugger who wanted to make a buck out of Presley, which eventually drove the whole world mad. Elvis's career was a ground-breaking show with an impact on pop culture that even the Beatles didn't have in Britain, so it's clear that Luhrmann opts for heavily pop-cultural filmmaking devices – from splitscreen to extravagant compositional continuity to flashbacks and flashforwards, with a narrator who is utterly reliable in all his guile and cunning. Tom Hanks may never have entertained me like this before, and as the manager, Parker dangerously steals some scenes for himself – as does Luhrmann, who dominates the fragmented but iron-clad and coherent plot much like Parker dominates Presley's life, reduced to a glittering pompous cliché. "I'm caught in a trap, I can't walk out....," Elvis sings in Casino as his manager makes a deal with the devil and takes absolute control. Luhrmann showers us with vivid scenes, but never leave us floundering, clinging to his increasingly fractured protagonist as the noose around his ill-fated life partner tightens. Everything is perfectly aligned, each act and each collage complementing each other in an almost constant spatio-temporal communication, which in Luhrmann's circus rhythm is almost dizzying. How long can a man be an attraction when he himself is denied pure joy? Countless motifs for comparison emerge from the film, which makes it easier to navigate the dynamic arrangement, and the fact that the director, with his perfectly calculated mannerisms, sometimes takes us too far away from Elvis can be forgiven – the final archive shots bring such lumps in our throats that not even the greedy Parker would take them. And I don't want to blame Butler at all, who was really amazing and blended so well with Elvis that after a while I didn't notice the actor, but only the character, something I couldn't do with Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody. Richard Roxburgh, my still favourite Sherlock Holmes from a not so favourite film, was also very enjoyable, and thanks for Little Richard. This is how you make biopics about cultural icons, through the lens of a culture that was crumbling before your eyes, and all it needed to be happy was a good wiggle in its hips. Again and again. 90 %
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The inconsistent storytelling made me dock a star, but it’s a refreshing break from the overly precise biopics that leave no room for creative flair because the narrative itself hogs all the attention. Elvis undeniably had an extraordinary life, and Baz Luhrmann sets the tone right from the start with his opulent storytelling. Sure, I got a bit lost at times, and about thirty minutes in, I felt like the film’s pace suggested an imminent conclusion. But those 160 minutes ultimately make sense. Even though the story drags a bit in the middle, I still felt like I was watching something incredibly original and unique. So what if it’s not a five-star film and the plot was sometimes confusing? Originality matters, and this film will stand out among other biopics of American music legends.
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Elvis is an enjoyable musical biopic that doesn't bring much new under the sun in terms of plot and slightly alters key events to build a somewhat better drama around them, but its main asset is of course Baz Luhrmann's idiosyncratic directorial grasp and especially the committed performance of Austin Butler, who manages to completely connect with the character of Elvis from the first minutes. Who failed to blend into the character, however, and who sticks out like a sore thumb in the film, is Tom Hanks. It's kind of a matter of whether you accept his peculiar efforts, but I simply didn't believe for the entire two and a half hours that I was seeing Colonel Tom Parker, but rather just Hanks overacting under a layer of prosthetics. Baz Luhrmann doses his hyperstylisation sometimes unnecessarily too much and his choice of the accompanying soundtrack, or rather modern music genres, in a story about the king of rock 'n' roll, I would in all fairness call at least questionable. In any case, and despite these distractions, the film works and offers a truly spectacular experience, which is worth seeing if possible on the big screen. For me, slightly mixed satisfaction.
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