Notes

ELVIS film Review strategy
A tumbling tower of flamboyance and fetishistic extra, Baz Luhrmann’s version of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll is as gaudy as Elvis himself. The film, like its subject, straddles a nice line between spectacular and cheesy, and between slick and boring.

Luhrmann’s approach, which is to throw every thing in with a sense of giddy abandon, can be efficient at capturing the sense of over-the-top energy and spectacle that made Presley such an inimitable attraction in his prime. But he often fails to offer the fabric the load it must really feel substantial. He additionally mishandles cloying musical biopic clichés. From over-the-top photographs of women at his early shows erupting into screams and throwing their underwear onstage, to scandalous headlines, finger-wagging moral gatekeepers rising hysterical over how he was busting down racial obstacles and promoting indecency, the movie is stuffed with cliches that hold it from reaching any real emotional heights.

There are baan series , after all. The movie does a fairly good job of contextualizing Elvis’s early experiences in Black areas (Tupelo, Memphis’s Beale Street) and how those black juke joints and gospel music revivals hooked him on blues and gospel as a baby. It’s a part of the picture that many have omitted through the years. And the movie places a few of his most well-known songs back into the mouths of the Black musicians who first wrote them, situating him as an appreciator of that music quite than the thief so many have claimed him to be through the years.

The film’s therapy of the relationship between Elvis and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, is a little more problematic. Played by Tom Hanks under layers of absurd prosthetics and a truly baffling accent, Parker comes off as cartoonishly evil which undercuts the strain that this story is meant to generate.

Despite its flaws, the movie still manages to capture some of the sense of marvel that we felt as kids watching Elvis in his prime, and for that reason it’s value a viewing. But don’t expect something close to a definitive account of the man’s life.

ELVIS opens in theaters on June 24. Check out the trailer beneath..
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