"Elvis" 2022 Baz Luhrmann directs, Austin Butler and Tom Hanks star.
YES.
Finally, a movie-movie.
I'm not an Elvis fan. Even after watching, and loving "Elvis," I'm not an Elvis fan. But boy did I like this film.
It's the best Baz Luhrmann film I've seen.
Like Luhrmann's other work, "Elvis" is loud, fast, frantic, dripping with glitz, color, and sweat. If you don't like being overstimulated at the movies, this may not be the film for you.
But Luhrmann's tendency to let the camp overcome the substance is restrained here. There is true heart in this movie. "Elvis" engages serious questions about art, greed, and exploitation.
"Elvis" has a very clear protagonist, Elvis Presley himself, who is depicted as a naïve artist who wants to create great art but who also wants fame and success and is willing to sell his soul to the devil to get both.
Tom Hanks as Col. Tom Parker, Elvis' manager, is a dastardly villain. Hanks is very unlikeable in this role. Despicable. You hate him. He makes your skin crawl. Parker has zero taste. All he has is greed and the cutthroat instincts of a carnival barker. He's also a compulsive gambler. Elvis will underwrite his debt.
In real life, of course, Elvis Presley was a drug addict, a food addict, and a violent man who almost took out a contract on his jilted wife's lover. He was a gun nut, he destroyed hotel rooms, and he directed girls to entertain him in lesbian orgies while he and his friends looked on. So, no, the real Elvis was not the blameless pussycat of the film's Elvis. The film even manages to just about skip over big, fat Elvis. Butler is mostly thin throughout the movie.
As a filmgoer, I don't much care about the disconnect between the film's Elvis and real life Elvis. Austin Butler is amazing as Elvis. It's clear he is taking his art very seriously, something the real Elvis would have benefitted from doing.
Butler is onscreen through most of the movie, often in close-ups. He is charismatic and sympathetic. You believe him and care about him. You want to protect him from Parker and from himself, and you know you can't. Most viewers will feel sad while watching this movie.
Butler's gyrations are expert. Butler must have taken belly dancing lessons, or lessons in some discipline similar to belly dancing. His abdominal and hip control are close to gymnastics.
"Elvis" shows young Elvis imbibing African American musical styles from honkytonks and from church music. The film pays less attention to the white Southern music that also influenced Elvis. The music white Southerners produced is parodied in the movie as lifeless and worthless. This parody is inaccurate. Country music star Hank Snow is depicted as a real loser. Check out some Hank Snow songs on YouTube. He was good. Watching this movie I thought frequently of Hank Williams. Hank Williams was also a country music star who died too young. If I had a magic wand and could extend either Williams' life or Elvis', I'd pick Williams. Hank Williams was a real genius. His life was full of pain, and he died way, way too young - he was just 29. He looked at least ten years older.
"Elvis" isn't a docudrama. The film doesn't plumb the depths of Elvis' art, or his dark side, or his decisions that, for this viewer, prostituted his art and stymied his artistic development. The real Elvis squandered the rich gifts God, and his fans, bestowed upon him. All for cheap worldly lures like banana-peanut butter sandwiches. "Elvis" is a very good movie, though. You love its protagonist, even as he lets you down and makes you sad. And you appreciate his art, even if the real Elvis has never appealed to you.
YES.
Finally, a movie-movie.
I'm not an Elvis fan. Even after watching, and loving "Elvis," I'm not an Elvis fan. But boy did I like this film.
It's the best Baz Luhrmann film I've seen.
Like Luhrmann's other work, "Elvis" is loud, fast, frantic, dripping with glitz, color, and sweat. If you don't like being overstimulated at the movies, this may not be the film for you.
But Luhrmann's tendency to let the camp overcome the substance is restrained here. There is true heart in this movie. "Elvis" engages serious questions about art, greed, and exploitation.
"Elvis" has a very clear protagonist, Elvis Presley himself, who is depicted as a naïve artist who wants to create great art but who also wants fame and success and is willing to sell his soul to the devil to get both.
Tom Hanks as Col. Tom Parker, Elvis' manager, is a dastardly villain. Hanks is very unlikeable in this role. Despicable. You hate him. He makes your skin crawl. Parker has zero taste. All he has is greed and the cutthroat instincts of a carnival barker. He's also a compulsive gambler. Elvis will underwrite his debt.
In real life, of course, Elvis Presley was a drug addict, a food addict, and a violent man who almost took out a contract on his jilted wife's lover. He was a gun nut, he destroyed hotel rooms, and he directed girls to entertain him in lesbian orgies while he and his friends looked on. So, no, the real Elvis was not the blameless pussycat of the film's Elvis. The film even manages to just about skip over big, fat Elvis. Butler is mostly thin throughout the movie.
As a filmgoer, I don't much care about the disconnect between the film's Elvis and real life Elvis. Austin Butler is amazing as Elvis. It's clear he is taking his art very seriously, something the real Elvis would have benefitted from doing.
Butler is onscreen through most of the movie, often in close-ups. He is charismatic and sympathetic. You believe him and care about him. You want to protect him from Parker and from himself, and you know you can't. Most viewers will feel sad while watching this movie.
Butler's gyrations are expert. Butler must have taken belly dancing lessons, or lessons in some discipline similar to belly dancing. His abdominal and hip control are close to gymnastics.
"Elvis" shows young Elvis imbibing African American musical styles from honkytonks and from church music. The film pays less attention to the white Southern music that also influenced Elvis. The music white Southerners produced is parodied in the movie as lifeless and worthless. This parody is inaccurate. Country music star Hank Snow is depicted as a real loser. Check out some Hank Snow songs on YouTube. He was good. Watching this movie I thought frequently of Hank Williams. Hank Williams was also a country music star who died too young. If I had a magic wand and could extend either Williams' life or Elvis', I'd pick Williams. Hank Williams was a real genius. His life was full of pain, and he died way, way too young - he was just 29. He looked at least ten years older.
"Elvis" isn't a docudrama. The film doesn't plumb the depths of Elvis' art, or his dark side, or his decisions that, for this viewer, prostituted his art and stymied his artistic development. The real Elvis squandered the rich gifts God, and his fans, bestowed upon him. All for cheap worldly lures like banana-peanut butter sandwiches. "Elvis" is a very good movie, though. You love its protagonist, even as he lets you down and makes you sad. And you appreciate his art, even if the real Elvis has never appealed to you.