Elvis Movie Review: An Exaggerated And Crackling Biopic! About The Boy From Memphis
Cast: Austin Butler, Chaydon Jay, Tom Hanks, Helen Thomson and More
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Elvis Movie Review: The king is back, and Baz Luhrmann thought about “bringing him back to life” in the sparkling biopic Elvis, starring Austin Butler, from June 22, 2022, in cinemas, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Elvis Presley: name and surname of a legend. A myth that resonates in the annals of music, a titanic figure who, like many great artists, died out all too quickly, burning ardently and pushing the limits. But who killed the boy from Memphis, who died at the age of 42? Were the excesses and the pills prescribed by his doctor? Too much effort? The cumbersome artistic life that was wearing him out from the stage. The new film directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby), Elvis, tries to answer the question, giving a refined and romantic interpretation (and the first reactions are excellent; in Cannes there were10 minutes of a standing ovation for Elvis).
The Australian director, screenwriter and producer, with his glossy, extreme and colorful style, from the beginning, seemed the perfect film-maker to tell this story, not just the rise and fall of a rock star (an Austin Butler already screened for the 2023 Oscars), but also his troubled relationship with his manager, the enigmatic Colonel Tom Parker (an extraordinary Tom Hanks). And the latter directs the main threads of the story and drags the audience into a crazy roller coaster, characterized by lights and shadows. A portrait of Elvis Presley between the divine and the human, at times excessively fragmented and daring, but effective in describing his artistic and family parable, especially in analyzing his frailties masked by the perfection of the stage.
Elvis Movie Review: The Story
Elvis is a project that hides its true intentions well: although the entire musical and personal life of the incredible American singer, dancer and actor is essential in the story, what is most striking is the attention paid to Presley’s divine consecration. The creation of a myth was initially founded ad hoc by Parker and then carried on by other producers and agents over time, with the barker Tom always having the last word. The young man from Tupelo, who grew up in poverty in a neighborhood mainly inhabited by African Americans and influenced by their music, rhythm and blues and gospel, had an extraordinary talent which, however, had to be harnessed to a system greater than himself, which saw him just like a money machine.
If we exclude the early stages of his career, the rock star with the rebellious tuft has always been accompanied by the “invisible” hand of the Colonel: the result is an iconic figure, shaped behind the scenes by the productive acumen of his manager and obviously by his natural propensity for the stage. It follows that the feature film is not only a brilliant biopic but also a refined and intelligent cross-section of the music industry at the turn of the 50s and 70s when a system was still being tested. Thanks to these different readings, we, therefore, have two points of view of the story: that of Parker who accompanies the whole film and which focuses on the aspects related to the manipulation and invention of the King of rock, and that of Elvis himself, more subtle and less explicit, which instead tells the public about the man behind the myth. A shy boy very attached to his mother and with a marked fragility that seized an enviable opportunity that led him to success, but also to ruin.
The story of Elvis Presley, from childhood to his untimely death, is told by his longtime manager, the ambiguous Colonel Tom Parker, played by an unrecognizable Tom Hanks. The film, which had its world premiere at the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival, traces the personal life and career of the unforgettable star through the particular relationship between Elvis and Parker, the one who brought to success that young and talented singer from Memphis who would change forever the history of music.
Elvis Movie Review And Analysis
Through tight editing (to put it mildly), between flashbacks, split screens, in a whirlwind of lights, songs, in a mixture of musical genres, even using contemporary songs, Baz Luhrmann accompanies us in the exorbitant and frenetic world of Elvis, that of the limelight, of world success. Not without returning to his humble origins in Memphis, the truest part of his life, the one with his family, underlining the very strong bond with his mother and with the music that had formed him, attending the clubs of African Americans, in the company of BB King, absorbing their rhythms, their culture. These are the influences of the king of rock, also emphasized to address issues such as racism, showing how at the time the musical and cultural identity of African Americans was unfairly carried forward by a white because they were not allowed to perform in many places at the cause of segregation.
So, through Elvis’s parable, we also see the parable of America, from the 1950s to the 1970s, the loss of innocence, the violence, and the contradictions of a country that in some respects does not seem so different from that of today. Austin Butler is a perfect Elvis, he doesn’t make a caricature of him, but he manages to express all his essence, purity of soul and sensuality. Butler sings the songs of the young Elvis to perfection, such as Hound Dog, while for the scenes from the sixties onwards his voice has been integrated with the original recordings, from Can’t Help Falling in Love to Suspicious Mind, from If I can dream an Unchained Melody, the latter in the finale in which the real Elvis is seen in his last, poignant performance in 1977.
Presenting the Elvis movie in this way brings with it an obvious problem: the hero has to shine and, even if his weaknesses are raised, the most controversial aspects of his life must be covered to a certain extent and always show him leaning towards sanctification. Of course, he was unfaithful, but he loved his wife. Sure, he was ambitious, but for the good of his community. Of course, he was leaving himself in the hands of a doctor who was killing him, but he needed to be on top of the wave. In this way, everything is taken down a reductionist path: he was a victim of success, of those who abused his generosity and dedication, and the “bad guy” is singled out from the beginning to such an extent that he goes so far as to maintain that at 42 years old, he died of a heart attack from overmedication, exploitation or his unfortunate physical form but from the excessive love of his fans.
Despite its two hours and almost forty minutes, Elvis tiptoes past certain milestones and stops as little as possible in his last stage, probably also one of the most interesting due to the number of contradictions he came to incur: He went from being an erotic myth to a guardian of morality, without going any further and a person sunk in dependency and loneliness. In this way, we can say that it is not a biopic to use it is quite far from showing all reality and focuses, above all, on that relationship of good against evil that even his mother seems to predict before dying that love kills.
Elvis is a celebration of the music of the King of Rock and a deep tribute to the roots of his passion: gospel, blues and African American rhythms. The film focuses more on his relationship with Tom Parker than on some of the more controversial aspects of his life. Austin Butler’s impressive performance lifts the film from beginning to end he overflows with charisma and sings 70% of the songs in the film. Baz Luhrmann, to manage Elvis these elements linked to the most intimate experience of the character and his transformation into a pillar of music, chooses excess as the central pivot of the cinematic experience.
This, if it is perfectly functional in painting the artistic aspects of the protagonist, does not tie well with the artist’s more private and personal components. The narrative path taken by the screenplay, written by the director with the contribution of Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner, is not always chronological but is very often driven by emotions. The pictures of Presley’s life and career are fragmented, reproducing the glow and darkness of a sensitive and imperfect being, with constant changes in scenes that are not always easy to follow. The direction, in a similar way, is baroque: the filmmaker, remaining faithful to his eccentric and out-of-line style, composes eclectic sequences, where dreamlike scenes, the fruit of the director’s imagination, from multiple points of view and fragments in black and white.
A multifaceted collage that manages to charm the viewer, but also to keep him away from the events of the American singer. An excess, therefore, on both sides: when he approaches empathy the feelings are almost tangible when instead he goes through alienation he takes chaotic and uncoordinated drifts. To underline also the particular soundtrack which, as already happened in The Great Gatsby, mixes the music of the period with modern covers, involving artists such as our Maneskin, Eminem, Tame Impala, Doja Cat, Jack White and many others.
The unexpected and evocative result greatly enhances Presley and his importance and influence in the history of the rock genre, the direct son of his genius. Moving on to the cast, we have an Austin Butler who gives an interpretation of Elvis as enthralling as his music, kaleidoscopic and chameleonic in its ability to pass smoothly between man and divinity, highlighting anxiety and fears, glory and self-destruction. An unbalanced and touching performance, also the daughter of Luhrmann’s excess, which will certainly be taken into consideration for the 2023 Oscars. Tom Hanks, on the other hand, gives life to a more monotonous and mean character, more traditional and schematic, who with the actor’s skill reaches heights of insane brutality and who still manages, despite everything, to break a breach in the hearts of the spectators.
Elvis Movie Review: The Last Words
Elvis must be taken as it is, without compromise: an exaggerated and crackling biopic about the boy from Memphis who thrives on imperfections and exaggerations. Baz Luhrmann paints a fascinating and contradictory portrait of an icon of world music, also giving space to an analysis of the music industry of the time. Both the writing and the direction live on experimentalism, and emotional chaos, transmitting to the spectators an excess that is difficult to explain in words. Everything becomes concrete thanks to the incredible interpretation of Austin Butler, at ease in the role of the American rock star, and the ruthless performance of Tom Hanks in the role of Tom Parker.
