Elvis

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 *review starts @ 32:41

🎙️ EPISODE 659: 03.07.23 Part of 2022 Week! Ah, Baz. The Baz-ster, as I call him. Would you believe me if I said that this was my first foray into the LuhrmannVerse? Well, you should, because A) it is, and B) because I would never lie to my dear readers whom I treasure above all things. I have no beef with the man; that's not why I've stayed away. It's just something that happened. I've missed everything he's ever done and there are some HUGE and very popular movies! Mea culpa, I guess. But I've never gone into a movie knowing exactly what to expect based on so little. His style is OVERWHELMING. This is, of course, THE POINT. There are very few directors whose films starts from a point of style and then work backwards to this much of a degree (Wes Anderson and Guy Maddin are two that come to mind immediately, but the whole list is fairly short, I'm sure). This is something of a blessing and a curse. It is, by very definition, limiting to work this way, even if it so clearly entails more, you know, WORK.

In the case of someone like Anderson, I've experienced fatigue with his insistence on adhering to such a specific style (I've still yet to see The French Dispatch after almost never missing one of his films during their theatrical runs). But with Elvis, I had the luxury of coming at it with a pair of fresh eyes. (There's also the fact that Luhrmann isn't very prolific: just six films in thirty years.) So while I knew what I was getting into just via proxy, the actual experience still felt fresh and new and occasionally head-spinning. This film, and I gather the entire oeuvre, is a lot to process. I was equally prepared to love or hate it going in. And I can safely say I lean much further to the latter having now seen it.

All of the accolades Austin Butler is receiving for his performance in the titular role are well-deserved. He's brilliant, capturing the voice and aura of the icon (a somewhat impossible task on paper) in a subtle, almost effortless way. Tom Hanks is... well, I don't know what he was doing here, but I definitely didn't hate it? It is a series of bizarre choices but he owns it and makes it work.

The most surprising element of Elvis was how well it functioned as an actual biopic. I was somewhat expecting a 160-minute long music video, but it really captures his essence as a person, and successfully tells his life story, as well. You walk away with a better understanding of the person behind the large-than-life idol, and it makes you really like him. I wasn't expecting to be this touched on such a human level.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 659B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 660A ⫸

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Elvis is a 2022 biographical drama film directed by Baz Luhrmann and written by Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. It follows the life of the American rock and roll singer and actor Elvis Presley, told from the perspective of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. It stars Austin Butler as Presley with Tom Hanks as Parker, while Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Luke Bracey co-star. It was released on October 15, 2022.