Elvis

A gorgeously shot, tightly edited, beautifully cast music biopic of The King that was unfortunately over-wrought, over-long, over-acted, and over-simplified. Simply put, too much Baz Luhrmann and too little Elvis Presley. 

After an excruciating and unnecessary 159 minutes, we never learnt much about Elvis the man.
If “Top Gun: Maverick” was a 2 hours musical video for a Lady Gaga song, then “Elvis” was essentially a near-3 hours sped-up, jukebox remix, mtv montage of Elvis’ hits.

It was emotionally vacant and distant with nary any sense of empathy or sympathy. Elvis, remained, as ever, a mystery. His ideas and motivations were glossed through, his paradoxes and his relationships paper thin and superficial. Lurhmann’s Elvis was all sequinned gloss but cardboard thin.

Austin Butler was pretty and nailed the young Elvis, but his mimicry was affecting and shallow especially off stage. Butler lacked the range and vulnerability to carry the emotional moments that Luhrmann and co’s script demanded. He had no chemistry with any of the other casts, not even - as the show put it, his greatest love - with the audience. Which was weird, because for all of Luhrmann’s faults, he always managed to create a central pairing worth rooting for: Satine/Christian, Daisy/Gatsby and Juliet/Romeo. But here, Elvis and Priscilla were as cold as a dead fish, and Elvis and the audience were as distant as the Grand Canyon. This was even more apparent when we get the epilogue with the docu-footage of Elvis’ live performance. Now, that was a star who connected. However, to Butler’s credit, he shone as a showman. When he was on stage, at those times, his Elvis felt lived in.

And of course, then we have Tom Hanks. That was a performance if nothing else. Taking away that atrocious accent, Hanks was a decent villain especially given how damn annoying his character was. Essentially a one dimensional slimeball that thought too highly of himself who for unknown reason, no one seemed to care enough to challenge or undermine him directly. But when they finally - finally! - did, that conflict just kind of deflated inconsequentially and we are just left with one big “huh?!”

Luckily, Elvis’ music was impervious to the Luhrmann’s excessiveness, and Luhrmann, again for all his faults, always had a good ear and knew how to use music appropriately in his movie. Although, in this case, it may have played better to those familiar with Elvis if Luhrmann had just allowed some songs to be played in full and just simply without all the zooms, cuts and camera spins. But, Elvis’ hits are forever. Simply the highlights of the film.

The film will undoubtably get some below the line Oscar nominations, eg editing, sound, costume, and hair & makeup; maybe even score, song and cinematography. If it maintains its momentum through the next 6 to 8 months, there might even be an oft chance for Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture (Hanks’ performance might be too polarising for Supporting Actor).

A beautiful film to watch for the Elvis fan, but don’t go in expecting too much; for the non-fans, it might likely appear dull, pointless, ridiculous and needlessly excessive.