Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” isn’t your typical biopic. But then again, why should it be?
A character as influential and flamboyant as Elvis Presley is deserving of a different approach and that is what Luhrmann delivers, offering up a fractured fairy tale and cautionary fable about fame and influence in midcentury America. At the center of his film isn’t Elvis but Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks under considerable prosthetics), the carnival barker-turned-Svengali that had a little too much sway over the King of Rock ‘n Roll. Sure, he helped elevate Presley in the public consciousness but also trapped him in a gilded cage.
True to form Luhrmann gives the story an extreme stylistic overlay; songs bleed and warm into each other, remixed frenetically with modern artists and current sensibilities. It’s overwhelming in all of the best ways and fits thematically with what Luhrmann is trying...
A character as influential and flamboyant as Elvis Presley is deserving of a different approach and that is what Luhrmann delivers, offering up a fractured fairy tale and cautionary fable about fame and influence in midcentury America. At the center of his film isn’t Elvis but Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks under considerable prosthetics), the carnival barker-turned-Svengali that had a little too much sway over the King of Rock ‘n Roll. Sure, he helped elevate Presley in the public consciousness but also trapped him in a gilded cage.
True to form Luhrmann gives the story an extreme stylistic overlay; songs bleed and warm into each other, remixed frenetically with modern artists and current sensibilities. It’s overwhelming in all of the best ways and fits thematically with what Luhrmann is trying...
- 6/26/2022
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
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