Elvis

Elvis is a Baz Luhrmann directed and Austin Butler starring biographical drama of Elvis Presley’s life. With the guidance of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks, you witness Elvis' evolution from a child living in poverty, to becoming the biggest rock star of the 1950s .

My opinions of Elvis tended to skew more negatively until I saw this movie. The story was able to humanize Elvis. You could see he definitely had an appreciation for gospel and blues from an early age. This movie did a good job of highlighting his influences like Big Mama Thornton and Little Richard. The respect he had for BB King was also palpable. His version of allyship for the Black community, though not overtly in your face, did come through in how he made an effort where he could. He made distinct choices in who he employed in his bands and the protest songs he wrote. The film also shows the downsides of his life from being manipulated, overworked and taken advantage of from an early age until his death.

The editing was very similar to Baz Luhrmann's other projects like Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby. I wasn’t really feeling that direction for this project. There was too much erratic fast motion camera work, too much split screen and too much voiceover.

The hair, makeup & costumes were pretty good for the majority of the cast in how they covered the span of three decades from the 1950s until the 1970s. One of the only issues I had was with the makeup they used for Tom Hanks’ character Colonel Tom Parker. The prosthetics didn’t look authentic and at times were a distraction.

Regarding casting, I have mixed feelings about Austin Butler’s Elvis portrayal. He had the resemblance, the confidence and the stamina required for the role but he was missing some of the other key factors in being Elvis. The most important was the iconic Elvis accent. His version, though not terrible, was a little too deep and sounded forced at times. He had descent acting range but I wasn’t fully engaged. I definitely wouldn’t have called his performance Golden Globe worthy. Additionally, I am a huge fan of Tom Hanks, but was I was disappointed in his performance as well. He had good chemistry with Butler but my issues come from a combination of the accent he choose to use, which sounded strange, and just the overall portrayal of this character, which came off like a cartoon villain at times. What really hurt both of these actors, though, wasn’t entirely their fault. The script was poorly written and corny. The soundtrack didn't help much either. The composers did a terrible job of infusing new songs with the classics. The instrumental sounds were also oddly placed and never fit with the mood of the scene.

In the end, I valued the new things I learned about Elvis as it helped changed my thoughts of him as a cultural appropriator to more of an appreciator. Unfortunately though the directorial choices really ruined the integrity of this film. It wouldn’t be one that I would watch again nor encourage others to watch.